Yoon Visit

We had a visitor, Dr. Patrick Yoon, out with us the past couple weeks in Tansen.  Pat is a good friend and one of my instructors from orthopaedic residency.  He works at our busy level one trauma center, HCMC, specializing in orthopaedic trauma, adult reconstruction, and foot & ankle.  

We had plenty of work to do while he was here.  Before his arrival we had one talus (ankle bone) fracture over two and half months – upon his arrival we had 3 tough talus fractures and one calcaneus (heel bone) fracture in one week.  It was a mini foot and ankle trauma fellowship for the Nepali orthopaedic surgeon, Dr. Tul and myself.

The rain of pediatric elbow and wrist fractures continues – helped along by huge swings built out of bamboo trees in every village in celebration of the Desai Hindu holiday.   We have been seeing many patients with tough soft tissue coverage issues as well.  This busy week of surgery was made possible by the great OR staff at Tansen who turn over the rooms and have the next patient ready in 10-15 

minutes.

We were able to help a young woman with badly deformed and painful wrists after sustaining fractures that were neglected a year ago.  She was pregnant when she had these fractures and now has two small children.  Her husband is not currently in the picture and may not be for some time.  The pastoral care team at Tansen helped put together a plan to care for the children while she would be recovering from surgery.   I am very thankful to have had the ability to call upon the experience and wisdom of my many of my surgery instructors back in Minnesota when I have had patients with difficult problems here in Nepal.  On this occasion Dr. Matt Putnam helped us craft a surgical plan to take care of this woman’s wrist.  We made a biplanar osteotomy (cut) in her forearm bone with a drill and chisel.  Then we took a piece of bone from her pelvis and wedged into the gap to restore proper wrist alignment.  If things go well we will fix the other side before Christmas.

In addition to fixing broken bones, Pat also acted as baby clothes mule filling half of his luggage with items for Win.  This earned Pat a number of big hugs from Win as he was getting ready to leave.  We were able to make some beautiful treks around Tansen and again when we took a few days for relaxation in Pokhara.  Big thanks to Dr. Yoon for the energy and teaching he brought to Nepal the past couple weeks!