EBOOK

Contact Wounds

Jonathan Kaplan
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Year
2006
Language
English

About

Surgery carries more individual responsibility than any other field of medicine.

Jonathan Kaplan studied medicine in South Africa and, after working in a black township and being drafted by the South African army, he chose exile rather than serve the apartheid state. He travelled the globe in search of sanctuary, experiencing riots, tropical fevers, political upheaval and a jungle search for a lost friend.

Kaplan landed eventually in Angola and took charge of a combat zone hospital, the only surgeon for 160,000 civilians, where he was exposed daily to the horrors of war. As a volunteer surgeon in Baghdad, he treated civilian casualties amid gunfights for control of hospitals, gangs of AK-47 wielding looters stripping pharmacies, and militant Shi'a groups harassing doctors out of operating rooms.
Jonathan Kaplan is a travelling journalist, documentary film-maker and medical vagabond. His first book, The Dressing Station, introduced his work as an air ambulance doctor, battlefield surgeon and ship's medical officer. He continues to take periodic assignments as a volunteer surgeon in war zones amidst part-time hospital posts, film-making, academic teaching, working as a photographer and adviser on medical TV dramas.

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