So No Child Must Wait

Chongqing, China: Empowering Local Physicians

Richard Siegal, one of our surgeons and a longtime Interplast volunteer, is shown here teaching Tsien/Melanie (her real name is Tsien, but she wants us to call her Melanie).  She is a post-doctoral student studying to be a maxillofacial surgeon.  She is really nice, and is always in the operating room peering over the shoulder of the surgeons and asking questions. Even on a break from surgery she is picking Rich's brain.

This is what Interplast is all about. Rich is a great surgeon, but he is the first to tell you that the most effective way to achieve lasting change is by training other doctors in advanced techniques.  He really enjoys teaching Melanie and the other local doctors, and recognizes that empowering local physicians is of the highest priority.

For more videos, stories, and information about how Interplast is changing the lives of children, doctors and volunteers in Chongqing, China, please visit the Chongqing, China surgical volunteer team blog.

Loja, Ecuador: Real Changes Can Be Made

  Planning The Week... 
  Originally uploaded by interplast.

I really feel empowered to try to help these nurses do the best job they can to help care for these people. They seem enthusiastic about the concept of a burn unit, and since they seem to be in the middle of construction, maybe some real changes can be made.

I just finished having a meeting with the surgery residents of the hospital. We had it in the lobby of the hotel. There were about 15 of them, at various stages of training. All of them expressed enthusiasm for the concept of learning more about burn treatment, and also for the concept of a burn unit. I am apparently going to meet the burn unit director tomorrow. I signed on to do a fairly ambitious program over the next few days. I will go in tomorrow and assess the unit in depth, and then give a general lecture on burn care tomorrow afternoon. I have talked about doing some workshops as well, where I could propose scenarios to them that they would then have to puzzle through, and also a “pig lab” where I could teach them how to take a skin graft on the side of a pig carcass. I don’t know if I will get around to it all, but it will be fun trying.

To see more from Tim's visiting educator workshop in Loja, Ecuador, check out the Loja, Ecuador visiting educator workshop blog.