Restoring dignity and confidence

Dr Didier Guinard

Didier, Médecins du Monde Chief Surgeon in Mongolia.

“Around the world, burn victims often seem to be the last in line. When we arrived in the country, over eight years ago, there wasn’t even a burns hospital to speak of. Since then, a lot of things have changed. The initial team of surgeons was quite old and had trained under the Russian system. They were quite resistant to change and it wasn’t easy to get our message across. Then came the new wave, which has clearly brought a breath of fresh air. We have shown them new approaches, which from a technical standpoint are quite advanced, and these have improved their ability to provide grafts. Beforehand, there was no respirator, no intubation, everything should be interconnected. That has gradually changed, which is a good thing. We naturally cannot ask surgeons, medical staff and paramedics to accomplish in just a few years things that have taken us a century achieve. Already, the hospital is a lot cleaner, and staff make do with the resources they have at hand. You still come across conflicts between different medical and surgical practices, but that will change, I am confident. In a few years they will be in a position to perform most operations on their own.”

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