Report & Photo Diary: Bosnia

Dear Dr. Lal,

I just got back from my trip to Bosnia, and would like to give you an update. It was a very good experience. I was really impressed by the ingenuity and skill of the Bosnian surgeons, and the pride everyone had in their hospitals. They saved some particularly challenging cases for me, as you may imagine, and it’s been a while since I worked with chisels and makeshift instruments. I operated every day of the week, and thankfully everything went well and I somehow managed to avoid any complications. The hospital leadership hosted a major dinner with many dept. chairs and the hospital director (neurosurgeon) and vice director (ER doc). Two newspapers did stories on my visit. I’m attaching one and adding the link to the other.

https://www.klix.ba/lifestyle/zdravlje/americki-okuloplasticar-alon-kahana-ljekari-u-bih-imaju-znanje-i-volju-da-pomazu/200115110?fbclid=IwAR23QzU8ntEjiYjqq2iHtNwAo-eaqJR6ViivZ9oMa7nYtbF_uB5pREkMEa4

I used Google Translate for both, and no major errors, thankfully (although certainly many hyperboles). As you can see from the photo in the attached story, at times I had dozens of observers, and one of my cases was live streamed because OMFS, Oto and neurosurgery were interested. Lots of pressure...

That live streamed patient was a teenage girl who accidentally fell from a balcony on her head, major injuries, coma for 2 months, damage to Broca’s area, major facial injuries, got some press at the time. Local girl. The neurosurgery dept. saved her life, and the OMFS dept. put her face together quite expertly. But they couldn’t address the residual fractures that led to her right eye being enophthalmic and hypo, with secondary ptosis, causing a significant facial deformity. Using a donated floor sheet implant, I was able to reduce all the tissues out of the maxillary sinus and repaired her and she’s doing great and family is very happy. That got a lot of attention in the hospital because she was there for so many months and everyone knows her and her family.

 I also performed multiple orbital decompression surgeries, facial reconstruction, socket reconstruction, orbital cancer excision, eyelid reconstruction, DCRs, and recurrent congenital ptosis repair. As a result of our progress, the hospital director promised to get some much needed instrumentation, including bipolar cautery and bovie. I also purchased some instruments on my own that I’ll ship to Zenica.

We also held a half-day conference that was attended by over 40 people, including trainees and faculty from across Bosnia, including Tuzla, Mostar, Sarajevo, Zenica and even Banja Luka in Republika Srpska. I met some incredible young ophthalmologists and trainees who are hungry for additional training. Bosnia doesn’t really recognize ophthalmic subspecialties or the concept of fellowship, so there’s a lot of opportunity to do good.

Many thanks to you and WEM for your help with this humanitarian trip. I think that we were able to make a significant impact.

Sincerely,

Alon Kahana, M.D., Ph.D.