What Are We If We Don’t Help Others?
Storyville, on BBC 2 today (30th March) at 2250, tells the story of Henry Marsh, one of the UK’s most respected neurosurgeons, and the wonderful, life-saving work he carries out in the Ukraine.
Henry has teamed up with a Ukrainian surgeon, Igor Petrovich, who is trying to make a difference in a country where the lack of surgical resources means that people are becoming disabled and dieing due to tumours that would easily be removed here in the UK. Henry visits the Ukraine at least twice a year, taking with him discarded medical equipment from St. Georges hospital in London. He shares his expertise and helps to perform complex operations with Igor.
The lack of resources often means that they need to improvise. Henry has had to use a normal DIY Bosch drill, bought in a local market, to make holes in a patient’s skull in order to remove a life-threatening tumour. As Henry himself has said:
“What are we if we don’t try to help others? We are nothing. Nothing at all.”
