FRANKFURT (dpa) – Plastic surgeons do not just iron out wrinkles, carry out liposuction and nose jobs.
For more than 20 years the organization Interplast Germany has sent specialist plastic surgeons to Third World countries to do reconstructive plastic surgery operations on victims of poverty and war.
They treat patients who have lost limbs in land mine explosions, correct hereditary club feet and hare lips, or remove tumours.
“Operations are basically free of charge to patients. More than half of the patients are children,” said surgeon Hermann Lampe of the Frankfurt section of Interplast Germany, one of 12 regional groups throughout the country.
Between 300 and 400 doctors and nurses currently make themselves available to work for the organization. “Their number is growing constantly,” said Andre Borsche, chairman of Interplast.
The members give up on average two or three weeks holiday per year to work for the organization in Vietnam, India, Sri Lanka or Pakistan, said the organisation in a report of its work to the annual conference of plastic surgeons in Frankfurt recently.
But war regions are taboo for security reasons. A project in Afghanistan has had to be abandoned.
Teams of six to eight surgeons, anaesthetists and nurses usually travel to a location at the invitation of a local hospital. They are paid only travel and accommodation costs, which are financed by annual membership fees. An average of 100 patients can be operated on in a 14-day stay.
But this is rarely enough. The teams usually have to leave before being able to help everyone in need. “Psychologically, this is the most difficult thing, that you can never help everyone,” said Borsche.
Not everyone approves of the organization’s activities. Since many of the host hospitals have only mediocre operating equipment, the travelling medics can only achieve mediocre results, some experts argue.
And some aid workers criticize the organization for only going to a country for just a few weeks and then disappearing again. They would prefer it to develop long-term structures.
Nevertheless, the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation is grateful for Interplast’s work. It believes the surgeons make an important contribution to emergency medicine.
The German medics also try to train local doctors so that patients are not left without help after they leave.
“Ideally, the host doctors would be able to continue independently after our departure,” said Borsche. Even before they arrive, the German medics rely on their host colleagues to inform and prepare possible patients.
“In some countries, buses with loud speakers travel through the country informing people of a visit. People sometimes walk for days with their children in their arms to get to the hospital,” said Borsche.
