Dr Rowan Hardy, Consultant in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care at the RUH in Bath, flew to Nepal yesterday to provide vital support to a hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Dr Hardy will be working with ReSurge International – a Californian-based charity that specialises in providing reconstructive surgical care for children and adults who lack access, and building surgical capacity in developing countries.
Dr Hardy has worked with the charity previously, and it was through ReSurge that he crossed paths with Dr Shankar Rai – a Nepalese surgeon who, with the backing of ReSurge, established a hospital in Kathmandu that provides reconstructive surgical care for impoverished children and adults.
In the wake of the earthquake in Nepal, the hospital – which has around 15 beds and performs planned elective surgeries – has been swamped with people requiring emergency care.
At Dr Rai’s request, ReSurge is deploying volunteer anaesthetists and nurses from the UK and US to join the team in Nepal.
Hardy is one of the anaesthetists who is to be deployed and he will be joined by Dr Joe Silsby from Taunton’s Musgrove Park Hospital.
Dr Hardy said: “I saw the events unfolding on TV and in the papers and wished that there was something I could do to help. Then I received the call from ReSurge, inviting me to join Dr Rai’s team. I jumped at the chance.
“Since I accepted, it has been a complete whirlwind – organising flights, handling calls and emails, shopping, packing and gathering supplies.
“I worked for ReSurge previously in Vietnam, but then we were performing elective surgeries. Delivering emergency aid in the midst of a natural disaster will be quite different, and it’s a little daunting.
“I have to say that my anaesthetic colleagues here at the RUH have been absolutely exceptional. They have all bent over backwards to enable me to go – rearranging rotas, taking on my workload, covering when I was due to be on-call, and working at weekends for me.
“I think every one of us wants to do something to help and this genuinely has been a team effort.
“Even my GP has offered to meet me after work to give me my travel vaccinations before I go. Everyone has been very generous.”
