Tag: Op-Ed

Global Surgical Need

More than 2 billion people are unable to receive surgical care based on operating theatre density alone. The vision of the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery is universal access to safe, affordable surgical and anaesthesia care when needed. The study aimed to estimate the number of individuals worldwide without access to surgical services as defined by …

When “The Good Doctors” Leave

On March 7, 2010 the Los Angles Times published an article written by Joel Rubin entitled “What happens to Haiti when ‘the good doctors’ leave.”  The main thrust of Joel’s article was “Emergency medical workers are becoming the de facto healthcare system for a country that has long failed to care for its own.  Soon a ragged health …

Dark Side Of Doing Good

At Loma Linda University’s 2015 Alumni Postgraduate Convention seminar on Global Orthopedics, Merrill Chaus gave both a disturbing and challenging presentation entitled, “The Dark Side Of Doing Good.” Disturbing because, as a veteran of several overseas mission trips, I knew that I had personally violated many of her recommendations – challenging in the sense that …

Five Years Later

The following post was written by Scott Nelson, MD after returning from a brief visit to Haiti earlier this month. It was a balmy January afternoon 5 years ago (January 12) when the world lost contact with Port-au-Prince.  For me it started out as just another day in Santo Domingo with a seemingly unremarkable earthquake …