Answering the call

The small mountainous country of Bhutan will soon have its only plastic surgeon – a specialist trained through a fellowship sponsored by Interplast at Adelaide’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

With bear maulings and terrible burns from kerosene cooking fires common place in Bhutan, the fellowship addresses a significant need, says Adelaide plastic surgeon Dr Tim Proudman AO, who has long been part of the program.

After a four-year hiatus due to COVID restrictions, an Australian team of specialists, including Dr Proudman, other surgeons, anaesthetists, hand therapists and nurses, will visit the country. In the interim, Dr Proudman, his wife Dr Susanna Proudman, the Interplast team and many generous donors have raised around $160,000 for the program.

The team will take its own equipment to manage a backlog of cases for a week-long stint in June and another two-week stint in October, developing the skills of local medical staff.

‘We’ve been going for many years but with COVID it all stopped. In the interim we’ve been working towards training the fellow, Dr Sonam Jamtsho, in plastic and reconstructive surgery and he has been at the TQEH since February,’ says Dr Proudman.

‘Sonam is coming with us in June and the idea is that he will return to Bhutan next year to establish plastic and reconstructive surgery there.

‘Treatment for burns in Bhutan is very limited – it’s a very rural country with most people living in the foothills of the Himalayas in areas very difficult to access by road. They often travel by mule and they use kerosene for cooking and heating.

‘There are a lot of burns, especially of small children, and they finally come to our attention when they have developed contractures. Staff generally don’t know how to debride the wound and prevent contractures. That’s where there is huge unmet need.’

Facial injuries caused by black bears are also challenging.

‘The danger is that Sonam will be overwhelmed by the unmet need. We need to expand the program and bring on more surgeons to develop their skills and develop a functioning service that meets the needs of the local people,’ says Dr Proudman.

While there are several major hospitals in Bhutan, many patients are seen in remote clinics and Interplast Australia helps to provide clinical support through email and training via ZOOM, as well as providing regular visits from Australian specialists.

Dr Proudman says working with Interplast has demonstrated the need for visiting clinicians to relate simply with local staff and patients and establish what they think is important rather than making assumptions. Most of the medical staff have learned English at school, which helps build relationships.

‘Bhutan is an interesting country culturally – it’s a monarchy with a Gross National Happiness Index. They are very adherent to their traditional cultural mores. It’s a very equal society; doctors get paid the same as cleaners and they have a different way of working. You have to respect that people do things differently’, he says.

‘People sometimes think of plastics as being about aesthetics, but you really appreciate what a difference it can make to people’s lives when you can repair an injury or congenital defect that has a significant impact on a subsistence lifestyle.

‘Many of the patients we see are farmers who depend on their being able to perform manual labour. In a place where they don’t have much welfare, it completely changes lives if they are able to resume or start working.’

People can help support the program by contacting Interplast

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International magician and illusionist Matt Tarrant bewildered his audience at the AMA(SA) Gala Ball on 20 May. For more about the Ball, see page

1. Dr Patrick Kennewell and Dr Louisa Edwards

2. Madeline Porter and Alexandra Talbot of Norman Waterhouse

3. Dr Lakshmi Nath and Dr Shriram Nath

4. Front L-R: Alexandra Talbot, Anastasia Gravas, Thomas Tagirara, Alexander Belperio, Li-shern Sim ; Back L-R: Madeline Porter, Stefanie Magliani, Lincoln Smith, Divya Narayan, Marissa Mackie

5. Dr Michelle Atchison, Dr John Williams and Associate Professor William Tam

6. Kelli Blakely and Adam Blakely

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7. Benita Rajvi, Angelina Arora, Kevin Huang, Christine Mausolf, Chelsea Gosden and Dr Hayden Cain

8. Illusionist Matt Tarrant and Dr Catherine Skinner

9. Dr John Williams and Joanne Thompson

10. Dr Ben Teague, Dr Nimit Singhal and Dr Deepti Singhal

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The inaugural Australian Medical Students’ Association (AMSA) Careers Conference was held at the Adelaide Convention Centre on 29 and 30 March. It brought together 250 medical students and 30 speakers from around the country to showcase the diverse career paths possible after graduating from medical school, and to help students prepare for the workforce. The conference concluded with a cocktail night at which students could network with each other and conference speakers including former AMA Vice-President Dr Chris Moy and Australia’s Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly.

1. Panellists Dr Claire Demeo and Dr Sam Paull

2. Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly being interviewed by AMSA volunteer Ashraf Docrat

3. Kylee Nuss, Dr Abby Moore, Dr Jessica Martyn, Dr Lloyd Weird, Dr Harry Gaffney and AMSA volunteer panel chair Jasmine Davis

4. Former AMA Vice-President Dr Chris Moy and AMSA President Tish Sivagnanan

5. The Networking Cocktail Night

6. AMA NSW President Dr Michael Bonning, AMA Council for Doctors in Training Chair Dr Hannah Szewczyk, Jasmine Davis and AMA(SA) DiT Chair Dr Hayden Cain

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The Royal Flying Doctor Service’s (RFDS) staged its annual ‘Wings For Life’ Gala Ball at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre on 20 May, with 1,000 guests attending for an ‘Out of this World’ experience. More than $290,000 was raised to support the RFDS’s program for the purchase and replacement of the ‘flying intensive units’ that help the organisation provide care to the most remote areas of the country.

1. Sue Arlidge, Angelique Galea, Dr Sally Cole, Annabel Smith, Dr Jessica Martyn, Chris Green (RFDS), Mandy Smallacombe, Adrian Smallacombe, Dr Susie Keynes

2. Event photo

3. Tony Vaughan ASM, Premier Peter Malinauskas, the Governor of South Australia, Francis Adamson AC, and Peter de Cure AM

4. Leanne Liddle, Professor Jonathan Craig, Health Minister Chris Picton, Jaqueline Goodall and Connie Blefari

5. Dr Mardi Steere and Andy Steere

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