Short Coat Podcast

Steel and Silk: Surgery With No X-Ray and a Home Depot Tent

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A surgeon for the International Committee of the Red Cross explains how she works with steel instruments, silk suture, and sugar when the nearest CT scanner is a plane ride away.

Dr. Ann Morrison, a Baylor-trained trauma surgeon in Anchorage who operates in war zones for the International Committee of the Red Cross (not the American Red Cross, which is a different organization entirely), joins M1 Nikki Chang, M2s Isa Perez-Sandi and Jonah Albrecht, and M3 Zach Grissom to talk about what it takes to get that job, why the answer includes five years in practice after residency and a stick-shift Land Rover, and why her US passport rules out more than half the countries where the organization has surgical teams. Dave learns why sugar goes in wounds, vinegar goes on pseudomonas, and why silk and steel remains the standard of care in war zones. Jonah asks about moral injury in war zones, where advanced medical care isn’t available and not everyone can be saved, and her answer is that you shouldn’t get comfortable with it. Dr. Morrison gives her thoughts on whether medical mission trips worth the plane ticket, and when you might just in the way. Also, what it’s like when the mortality rate jumps from 1 or 2 percent at home to 15 or 20 abroad, and why Americans are so bad at thinking about the end of life.

Some books mentioned in this episode:

Episode credits:

  • Producer: Zach Grissom
  • Co-hosts: Zach Grissom, Isa Perez-Sandi, Nikki Chang, Jonah Albrecht
  • Guest: C. Anne Morrison, MD, MPH
  • Production: SCP Media Lab–Anna Royer, Cyrus Barati, Isa Perez-Sandi, Zach Grissom, Sarah Upton, Srishti Mathur, David Lee, and Jacob Thompson 

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