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O C T O B E R 2 0 1 5 | O U T P AT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E
Lessons Learned From India
A service trip to Mumbai shows we have much to be thankful for.
T
here's a lot to com-
plain about these
days: insurers,
budget restraints, legal
issues and the omnipresent
compliance shackles. A
recent teaching/service trip
to Mumbai, India, gave me a
real infusion of gratitude for
my life and surgical practice
in America.
The international arthroscopy conference I was invited to was held
at a reasonably comfortable hotel, but security was always on hyper-
alert. I went through more metal detectors than the butler at the
White House. After delivering a lecture, I was asked to perform a live
knee surgery in order to convey contemporary surgical techniques to
an audience of surgeons. Not on a cadaver, but a real patient. I wasn't
even fully apprised of the diagnosis.
Feeling uneasy about operating on someone I'd never met, I rea-
soned that I could perhaps help this uninsured soul with a technique
not available to her in her native country. I was escorted to a state
hospital that was hot, steamy and extremely limited in equipment. I
examined the anesthetized patient and discovered that her very unsta-
ble knee would need a posterior cruciate reconstruction.
The equipment we take for granted in America was not present. No
drill guides, thermal ablation or cannulas. Several Hail Mary's and
MacGyver Moments later, I was able to successfully complete the sur-
gery in a room that was as humid as the steam room at the YMCA. I
C U T T I N G R E M A R K S
John D. Kelly IV, MD
z STANDING ROOM ONLY Dr. Kelly works
a crowded OR at a hospital in Mumbai, India.
John
D.
Kelly
IV,
MD