Operation Crisis ─ Surgical Care in the Developing World During Conflict and Disaster

Surgical care is increasingly recognized as a critical component of global health, and strong surgical skills, teamwork, and poise under pressure become even more imperative during conflict or disaster. When faced with hospital bombings or devastating earthquakes, healthcare personnel must develop special techniques and abilities to ably care for patients despite limited resources and a disrupted health system. In Operation Crisis, Dr. Adam L. Kushner brings together 22 medical experts from around the world to recount their experiences in the field when disaster struck. These candid firsthand accounts from both local and international aid surgeons provide clinicians and public health practitioners with insightful lessons for effectively treating surgical patients under the most grueling of circumstances.

Moving from conflict settings that include war zones in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria, and South Sudan, Operation Crisis also touches on post-earthquake Haiti and Nepal and post-tsunami Indonesia. Individual themed chapters cover mass casualty training, burn care, obstetric care, sexual violence, and landmine injuries. Combining personal stories with lessons learned and possible interventions, these vivid and affecting essays detail the immediate aftermath of conflict and disaster while pointing the way to improving care for future victims of crisis.

Intended to spark further discussion and function as an advocacy tool while highlighting situations where surgical care can save lives and reduce disability, this book is a valuable resource for medical professionals, students, policy makers, international aid organizations, and philanthropic donors.

Contributors: Kapendra Shekhar Amatya, Samer Attar, Jeffrey A. Bailey, Lucas C. Carlson, James C. Cobey, Dattesh R. Dave, Dan L. Deckelbaum, Richard A. Gosselin, Shailvi Gupta, Edna Adan Ismail, Thaim B. Kamara, T. Peter Kingham, Adam L. Kushner, Judy M. Lee, Maria "Tane" Pilar Luna, Brijesh Mishra, Tarek Razek, Kyle N. Remick, Lauri J. Romanzi, Michael Sinclair, Barclay T. Stewart, Marten van Wijhe, Evan G. Wong

Adam L. Kushner, MD, MPH, FACS, is an associate in the Department of International Health and a faculty member in the Center for Refugee and Disaster Response at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The founding director of Surgeons OverSeas, he has provided surgical care to patients in conflict, post-conflict, and disaster settings around the world. He is the editor of Operation Health: Surgical Care in the Developing World and the coeditor of Operation Ebola: Surgical Care during the West African Outbreak.