Dr. Thomas
Unbelievable morning. It is mornings like today's when you think this country may have a future after all. As the European volunteers worked their magic in the dressing room again this morning, Zev , Jake, Abebe , and I decided to walk over to the nearby Yekatit 12 Hospital. The GW students had visited and highly recommended us meeting Dr. Thomas who runs the burn unit at the hospital, supposedly the most advanced burn unit in all of Africa. I haven't seen any other burn units, but regardless, Dr. Thomas is an unbelievable individual. What follows is his short biography, a synopsis of our visit, and the bits of information I remember clearly enough to put down here. Born in Ethiopia, Dr. Thomas did his medical training in Norway with additional training in India and Scotland. He is a trained plastic/reconstructive surgeon and built the burn unit @ Yekatit from the ground up. He has now trained 8 doctors from Ethiopia to work in/run similar units and has a competent nursing...