…morrow morning.” This was my fourth trip as surgeon with the International Committee of the Red Cross. The out-going briefing in ICRC’s HQ in Geneva hid nothing. “South East” was the name given to a very discrete and politically sensitive surgical action in a corner of the poorest of African countries riven by a brutal cold-war era civil conflict. South East was a vast former national park occupied by rebels and their situation was desperate. Furt… Continue reading →

…working as a surgeon in a hospital on the Afghan border of Pakistan for war-wounded run by the International Committee of the Red Cross. One of my patients was a ten year old boy who had been shot through the right side of his chest. (For those interested, an AK47 might shoot a high energy military bullet but if it’s stable in flight – for example, at longer range – it can pass clean through the body doing surprisingly little damage.) This boy arr… Continue reading →