Index Title: RROQUE’s Medical anecdotal Report [04-3]

MAR Title: Sharing Doctors without borders

Date of Medical Observation: February 28, 2004

Narration:

            It was not unfamiliar for many charities to send medical and surgical teams to developing countries such as the Philippines. The month of February was memorable when foreigners shared their resources as well as their experiences in the field of surgery.

            Virginia Roque, a 64 year old female was one of the lucky recipient of a free all expense paid Mastectomy operation for her breast cancer. It was my first hand experience to have a foreigner to assist me in my Mastectomy operation. I felt a quiver of fright and a crumb of uneasiness. As I clad myself with my scrubsuit, a gust of questions breezed through my mind. “Do I have enough skills to perform the operation with a foreigner to evaluate my every move?” “Am I competent enough to answer every question or issue he might throw on the topic?” Am I updated to present and current therapies of breast cancer?”

            I went to throw the first question, to erase the cloud of uncertainty “Is there really much difference in how you would manage advanced breast cancer back in the States?”, and he replied “Not much really, what we can do is catch them at an early stage because of the advanced screening modalities”. “But surgery still addresses most of the issues-whether it is minimally invasive or not”, he added.

More questions were exchanged and opinions were shared further as the operation concluded unremarkably.

Insights (DISCOVERY, stimulus, reinforcement):

            With sharing—experiences, thoughts, feelings and ideas we exchange learning and achieve wisdom with time.

Stimulus

            Spend time and discuss your operations. Share every morsel of learning you have realized and attained.

There is always room for us to excel and be at par with developed countries.

Reinforcement

            Every operation is an endowment of learning—with the patient and your colleague as well.