Sejal's Broken Leg: A Children's Story About Global Surgery
By Evelyn MacLeod
This post is part of a series in diverse mediums focusing on the theme “How do we envision equity in global health?”. These submissions are by McGill students who were part of the course, Fundamentals of Global Health, in Fall 2023.
Summary:
The problem emphasized in my project is Equity in Global Surgery. Currently, five billion people do not have access to surgical care. In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), nine out of ten people lack access to these necessary services (1). This project focused specifically on the lack of pediatric surgeons across the world. LMICs have an average of one specialized pediatric surgeon for every three million children, with many having none at all (1). This results in enormous numbers of preventable deaths and an exacerbation of poverty, either from the surgical costs themselves or a disability resulting from an untreated surgical condition (1).
Furthermore, our current global surgery system lacks equity for the rural LMIC surgeons who shoulder unimaginable surgical burdens in their communities. Presently, global surgery relies heavily on surgeons from the Global North going on brief trips abroad to do surgeries in LMICs, often not knowing anything about the culture where they will be practicing (2). They are also not well-equipped to perform surgeries in conditions that differ from hospitals in resource-rich countries where they were trained. In addition, they rarely follow the lead of local surgeons, leading to highly capable rural surgeons being looked down upon (2). The future goal would be a transition from our current ineffective, colonial system to a more equitable one of international colleagues working together and learning from each other on equal ground (2).
I chose to present this project as a “children’s story” to highlight how horrific it is that children must live with so much uncertainty surrounding their access to surgical care. The colourful illustrations and narrative aim to make the information digestible, memorable, and shareable on social media, raising awareness of this issue among young people in the Global North.
Summary References
1. Ferreira, J. (November 24th, 2023). Global Surgery. [PowerPoint Presentation]. PPHS 511, McGill.
2. Roy, N. (2017). Global surgery: A view from the south. Journal of Pediatric Surgery, 52(2), 203–206. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpedsurg.2016.11.006