TRAVELS AROUND THE WORLD
Safa Taxi ( electric three-wheeler ).
There was a real need for an MRI machine and an ICU . So , I talked to the president of the university regarding maintenance and continuity , and he assured me on both of those . I talked with the Siemens CEO to negotiate a price . I had little money in my retirement , and I was able to get the machine from South Africa and transport via the German embassy ( with Siemens ’ help ) so that the hospital wouldn ’ t have to pay any taxes , and my cost would be less not having to pay the freight . I suggested naming the MRI room after a famous Nepali poet . The ICU was named after my mother .
I took the last three weeks of my stay off for pleasure , and I walked the Annapurna trail and climbed the Everest base camp , which resulted in Sights and Sounds of Nepal and Kathmandu Valley , Brandylane , 2000 .
One day in the clinic I had examined a young girl who I thought had a seizure disorder , and I had written on the chart as such . Dr . Shilpakar explained to me that I needed to write a different diagnosis because the potential future in-laws would have access to the medical records and that could place a stumbling block to her marriage . So I wrote “ a condition undetermined .” I told him that I had seen a patient from Eastern Kentucky once at the referral of a family doctor with unusual back pain disorder . I had diagnosed that he needed psychological check up . The doctor had called me and told me that I had to have a different diagnosis because the doctor sees him in the grocery of a small town and such diagnosis was not helpful . I acquiesced .
My purpose of being there was not for operating all the time but to learn to be patient and provide a hand when requested . I learnt the culture and to diagnose conditions that I would rarely see such as tuberculous of the brain , cysticercoses and Dracanculus medinensis ( Guinea worm disease ).
Dr . Shilpakar and I had operated on a 19-year-old girl who could only move her toes . She had tuberculosis of the odontoid compressing the spinal cord . It took us about eight hours to operate through her mouth ( without any fancy instruments ) and palate to drill the arch of C1 and the odontoid ( having her head in Crutchfield tongs ) and then flipping her over and fusing her neck by using one of her ribs and # 2 wire . We performed a tracheostomy in the beginning . We recommended using anti-tubercular treatment for a year . Next year when I went back , she met me at the airport to greet me with a smile and NAMASTE !
I mostly learned the value of loving care and brotherhood without ever thinking as to which one of us was more skillful because I always remember what Dr . Luke , the apostle , had said ( 12:48 ), “ To whom much is given , much is required .”
Dr . Banerjee is a clinical professor of neurosurgery at the University of Louisville .
Save the dates for these upcoming GLMS events !
GLMS Foundation Senior Physicians
first Tuesday of every month
Presidents ’ Celebration Sunday , May 21
Family Day at the Zoo Saturday , July 8
GLMS Foundation Doctor ’ s Cup
Monday , September 18
Stay up to date on these and other upcoming events at glms . org .
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