National Burns Centre (A 50 bedded burns hospital in Airoli) came up with an 'Operation Restore, 2018' - providing free surgeries for the Burns patients.
"It's difficult to bring all the change, but isn't it wonderful to support the ones who are trying their best to bring about a significant change in this world?"
Hence, Switch India organisation collaborated with the National Burns Centre (NBC) in order to create and spread awareness about skin donation and its need.
In accordance with this collaboration, the NBC had allowed volunteers of Switch India to watch the surgeries performed by the renowned surgeons as a part of their Operation Restore.
It was a 2 day event. The group of volunteers were divided into 2 teams who visited there on 6th and 7th October respectively.
During these 2 days, the enthusiastic teams reached the NBC and started their expidition at 8am sharp! The team members were from different colleges and vivid medical courses - all united by Switch India.
After a short introduction and following their division into two batches, the first batch proceeded towards the OTs to watch the surgeries. The other batch went to see patients admitted in the wards.
The first batch got a chance to see 6 to 7 surgeries where they got an amazing opportunity to look and analyze the different ways of skin grafting, the contracture releasing procedures, K wire fixation, splint making and splinting the part and many more things.
Senior surgeon Dr. Keswani guided the teams really well while switching between the operation theatres and the young doctors were moved by his amazing knowledge and modesty. Students were asked to keep on rotating sequentially in all the OTs to not miss out on any of the surgeries that were going on.
It's worth appreciating how the surgeons while performing the surgery, made sure that the students understood the crux of surgery, by explaining everything that was important to know.
After having a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction, both the batches interchanged their places and headed towards their second purpose. The second batch watched the surgeries and the first batch went to the wards. The flow and exchange of knowledge was so overwhelming, that the seniors guided the juniors and each one was mutually learning.
Rest of the day was spent doing some fruitful activities like - having a filling lunch, visiting the skin bank and having a view of the beautiful butterfly garden.
The visit to skin bank projected 2 purposes - the ways in which skin was preserved and the awareness on why was it important to donate skin.
The students were shown all the machines and modalities used to preserve the skin and were explained about its harvesting, storage, safety testing and preservation for subsequent use. They addressed onto the important facts like - how would the skin be harvested, what are the essential requisites when someone wishes to donate their skin and what procedure is to be followed after demise of the skin donar, in order to get in touch with NBC for skin donation.
Later, the visit to butterfly garden was a source of refreshment to the students. The view of butterfly garden was simply enchanting. The numerous butterflies flying through the garden made it a peaceable view.
When all the events came to an end on a successful note, all the members assembled to take a group picture on the grounds of NBC. Bidding a temporary farewell, everyone waved a goodbye and dispersed back to their homes with new friends and amazing memories. A sense of satisfaction glowed from each of their faces, as they returned with a new vision, new learnings and with an identifiable sense of responsibility towards the society as future doctors.
Kudos to Switch India, for inculcating interest, enthusiasm and love for the well being of society into the young Doctors. This branch of Switch India, that helps educating the budding doctors in all the different horizons of Medicine, is truly an amazing and a valuable step towards the betterment of the society.
Stay tuned to know about more such initiatives and successful learning opportunities by Switch India.
