Free Surgeries and Medical Training in India by Dr. Usha Kiran from Dubai
While our country is on a gradual development slope, many parts of India remain in poor condition. In terms of medical facilities in these cities and villages, the government does provide the infrastructure and tools to work with. Still, the doctors available don’t have the proper training to perform high-risk surgeries. Most of these doctors start working in hospitals as soon as their education is over which leads to a lack of supervised experience to do complicated surgeries. And since one mistake in the operation theatre can often draw the line between life and death, inexperienced doctors refrain from taking on any surgeries they have performed very few, which further leads them to never growing as surgeons.
Not only is this detrimental to the doctors unable to grow but also to the patients who, because of this, need to travel far to bigger cities for treatments.
This is the reason why Dr. Usha Kiran, a UK trained Gynaecologist and an advanced laparoscopic and scarless surgeon practising in Dubai, has made it her mission to travel to remote places in India and provide free gynaecological surgeries as well as free training to the doctors working there despite her one of the busiest surgeons in Dubai.
Dr. Usha Kiran founded the NGO WomaNaari, registered in India. WomaNaari strives to accomplish its mission of empowering women with health and strength by working on its 3 main goals which are: Providing healthcare and medical training to the doorsteps of the underprivileged; Encouraging women over 50 to explore, expand and hone their interests, and inspiring them to not let their age define them; Teenage empowerment camps held in schools to start empowerment at the roots.
When people ask her why she doesn’t provide training in one location where all these doctors can come, she tells them that the doctors would require several hands-on workshops to develop the skills and more often than not, these doctors cannot afford to leave their jobs and family which is why she is bringing the training to their doorstep repeatedly so that over time, the doctor becomes skilled enough to perform the surgery on their own.
So far, the camps have been regularly conducted in a few places including Kargil, a war-affected area, and Chhattisgarh, a Nexilite-affected area.
Most recently, she made her 4th trip to Robertsganj, a small city in Uttar Pradesh, for a surgical camp that took place in Jiwan Jyoti Hospital. Usually, her camps last 2-3 days and she takes 12-13 major cases with the local staff. By doing this, she is giving back to her country, a country that gave her so much. Bit by bit, by extending her knowledge to the junior doctors, she is leaving her clones in those areas who will continue to work with what she has taught them and, in a way, she will continue to serve her country even when she is not there.