Johannesburg - When Dr George Velmahos began treating the first casualties of the Boston Marathon bombing, unlike his US counterparts, he had seen such devastation before.
Velmahos had learnt his trade in South Africa.
“Every weekend was a Boston bombing at Bara hospital,” Velmahos told The Star.
Velmahos is the chief of trauma surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital and a professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School. He received training in trauma medicine at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital between 1992 and 1994.
He worked under the then chief of trauma, Dr Demetrios Demetriades.
“I believe the training I received at Bara was the most important in my entire life,” Velmahos said.
Massachusetts General treated 31 victims of the bombings. The hospital performed four amputations, Velmahos said.
The twin blasts killed three people and injured scores more.
Velmahos said that while working on the victims of the Boston marathon bombing was “drastically similar” to what he experienced at Baragwanath, it was also very different.
What was the same were the patients coming in en masse and doctors being forced to do rapid triage.
“You have to quickly assess who is the most badly injured. It’s an ability you learn,” Velmahos said.
The major difference, however, was the resources available.
“The resources at Mass General are enormous.”
Velmahos said there were far more personnel, a bigger blood bank and more intensive care unit beds.
He referred to Baragwanath as a massive hospital.
“But it’s not just bricks and mortar that makes a hospital. It’s the human beings who make it work, and the human beings in South Africa were amazing.”
Velmahos emphasised that he was comparing Massachusetts General to the Baragwanath of 20 years ago when he worked there.
He added that Bara was a great training ground for a trauma surgeon because of the sheer volume of cases.
“Practice makes perfect, and we got to practise, but always under the supervision of senior surgeons who watched and helped us,” Velmahos said. “The rest of the world just doesn’t see the same volume of cases.”
He said that while American trainee surgeons might see one stab wound to the heart in their years of training, a South African trainee would see 30 to 40 in the same time frame.
He believes so strongly about the trauma medical training in South Africa that he takes every opportunity to advertise Bara as the best training facility in the world.
“One of the first things I did when I became a professor at Harvard University was try to set up rotation for our students to go to Bara,” Velmahos said. - The Star