this is global health

Operation Health
Surgery iS public health?
Researchers argue that
the quintessential clinical
intervention deserves an
essential place on the
global health agenda
Story Jackie Powder
Photography Susan Hale Thomas
The 2-year-old girl arrived at Phebe Hospital in rural Liberia barely alive.
Her abdomen had been ripped open, and her intestines spilled out
of the gaping wound. She had been attacked while playing with her village’s
pet monkey.
“Something happened to upset the monkey, and it literally tore
the child’s abdomen open,” says Johns Hopkins surgeon Fizan Abdullah,
MD, PhD. The girl likely had an umbilical hernia that the monkey
grabbed, allowing the animal to easily tear open the abdomen, he says.
“The mother thought that the baby was dead and immediately
abandoned the child,” Abdullah explains. Then a neighbor—who had
seen a visitor in a pickup truck earlier that day—picked up the baby and
ran a mile-and-a-half to find the truck’s owner. They drove the child over
30 miles of bad roads to reach the hospital.
“We helped the local surgeons put IV fluids in, put her intestines
back in and close up the abdominal cavity,” says Abdullah, who was in
Liberia leading a medical education program to train surgeons in a costeffective
and efficient hernia repair technique.
Johns hopkins public health / spring 2013 15