SURGICAL CONSULTATION IN CHINA

We went with Doug and his two kids, Douglas and Rebecca, to Beijing China. Doug has been there six times and knew his way around pretty well.

He has been there for surgical training reasons. He followed the path set up by Elder Nelson and Don Doty in there efforts to train in cardiac surgery. Doug has taught carotid endarterectomy or cleaning out the carotid artery to prevent strokes. They have a huge number of strokes in China each year and many may be preventable. Doug has been showing them how to do the operation carefully and has done this for several years. He is a local surgical hero.

We went to the hospital and saw two patients. One with an occluded carotid artery and one with bilateral disease. We looked at the x-rays. Doug and I mumbled a few things together. I told him what I would do and we discussed that. We examined the patients and then sat down and had a major conference for these two cases.

The operation had not been done safely in the past but they are doing well now. Dr. Jhang, our host, said these patients were lucky because Doug would do the surgeries. One needed a Subclavian artery to carotid artery bypass and the other a simple endarterectomy. Doug emailed me that both surgeries went well and both patients are OK.

We lined up for the picture, me in a white gown ten sizes too small. I believe more people understand English. As we lined up I said, "Let's get some of these pretty girls in the picture" and there were lots of giggles.