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DOCTOR FINDS INSPIRATION IN ARMENIA
By Daniel Siegal
Valley Sun
http://www.lacanadaonline.com/news/tn-vsl-1215-doctor-finds-inspiration-in-armenia,0,4041830.story
Dec 9 2011
CA
La Canada Flintridge resident Armond Kotikian, DDS, MD, used to plying
his trade as an oral maxillofacial surgeon in the cushy operation
rooms of Glendale Adventist and Glendale Memorial hospitals, got
a lesson in improvisation while performing pro bono surgeries in
Armenia this past summer.
In his first-person account, "Tools of the Trade Across Borders," an
article published online at hetq.am, Kotikian describes the hospital
in the Armenian province of Karabagh in which he performed dozens of
surgeries over a five-day period:
"There was no air conditioning in the hospital and the temperature
would reach the low 90s at noon. The nurses had special sterile
instruments to dab our foreheads so we wouldn't contaminate the
field with our sweat. The hospital water occasionally ran out and the
operating nurses had to rinse our arms and hands with small buckets of
water after we scrubbed. I was operating with instruments I thought
didn't exist anymore. Despite all this, things went as smoothly as
they do in our pampered operating rooms in the United States."
Now back at home, Kotikian said his time in Karabagh was an
inspirational experience.
"What I learned was that, regardless of the conditions, if you have
the surgical training you'll get by with whatever they have, to get
the best outcome on the patient," he said.
Kotikian was in Armenia for the Armenian Medical International
Congress, an event held every four years that draws Armenian physicians
from all over the globe. He said he had been asked to lecture at the
congress, and at the time he accepted the invitation he decided to
reach out to provide his services to an area in need.
"I'm about two years out of residency, and I've been meaning to do
this for a very a long time," he said. "It was a good way to go back,
and give back to my country."
It was especially gratifying, Kotikian said, to work in Karabagh,
an area in dire need of oral surgical care.
"It's close to 130,000 people, and there's only one individual there
who is an oral-maxillofacial surgeon, just like me," he said.
In addition to working with that surgeon, Dr. Sasun Vahanyan, to
repair cleft lips and palates, remove oral and neck tumors and even
remove a set of wisdom teeth, Kotikian worked to educated the local
professionals in the newest techniques.
"It was a good way of giving back and educating them, and teaching
them the American standards," Kotkian said, "because they're mostly
trained with Russian techniques, which are very old school."
Technical education wasn't the only teaching Kotikian did, however. He
said that in the more rural parts of Armenia, like Karabagh, there
is a stigma attached to children born with cleft palates or lips.
"When these kids are born with cleft lip or palates, or any other
facial defect, they think the kid is abnormal," he said "What they
do there, unfortunately, is when these kids are born with these cleft
lips they give them up for adoption."
Kotkian said he worked to teach the local populace that cleft lips
and palates were common issues that could be fixed.
"It's the second most common anomaly after clubfoot, and it could
be corrected...it doesn't mean the patient has any mental issues or
anything else," he said. "It's a simple defect that can be repaired,
and it happens."
Still, said Kotikian, plenty of work remains, which is why he's
working with the Armenian-American Medical Society, based in Glendale,
to establish a bi-yearly mission to the area.
"What I would do is try to spend more time there, No. 1, because the
more time there, the greater the opportunities," he said. "Second of
all, I'd want to take my instruments and actually donate them...so
they'd actually have them and be able to use them on future patients."
Ultimately, Kotikian said he's hoping his efforts manage to touch
more than just the people of Karabagh.
"The biggest reason I wrote [the article] was to encourage people to
volunteer their time," he said. "Everyone can make time if they want."
By Daniel Siegal
Valley Sun
http://www.lacanadaonline.com/news/tn-vsl-1215-doctor-finds-inspiration-in-armenia,0,4041830.story
Dec 9 2011
CA
La Canada Flintridge resident Armond Kotikian, DDS, MD, used to plying
his trade as an oral maxillofacial surgeon in the cushy operation
rooms of Glendale Adventist and Glendale Memorial hospitals, got
a lesson in improvisation while performing pro bono surgeries in
Armenia this past summer.
In his first-person account, "Tools of the Trade Across Borders," an
article published online at hetq.am, Kotikian describes the hospital
in the Armenian province of Karabagh in which he performed dozens of
surgeries over a five-day period:
"There was no air conditioning in the hospital and the temperature
would reach the low 90s at noon. The nurses had special sterile
instruments to dab our foreheads so we wouldn't contaminate the
field with our sweat. The hospital water occasionally ran out and the
operating nurses had to rinse our arms and hands with small buckets of
water after we scrubbed. I was operating with instruments I thought
didn't exist anymore. Despite all this, things went as smoothly as
they do in our pampered operating rooms in the United States."
Now back at home, Kotikian said his time in Karabagh was an
inspirational experience.
"What I learned was that, regardless of the conditions, if you have
the surgical training you'll get by with whatever they have, to get
the best outcome on the patient," he said.
Kotikian was in Armenia for the Armenian Medical International
Congress, an event held every four years that draws Armenian physicians
from all over the globe. He said he had been asked to lecture at the
congress, and at the time he accepted the invitation he decided to
reach out to provide his services to an area in need.
"I'm about two years out of residency, and I've been meaning to do
this for a very a long time," he said. "It was a good way to go back,
and give back to my country."
It was especially gratifying, Kotikian said, to work in Karabagh,
an area in dire need of oral surgical care.
"It's close to 130,000 people, and there's only one individual there
who is an oral-maxillofacial surgeon, just like me," he said.
In addition to working with that surgeon, Dr. Sasun Vahanyan, to
repair cleft lips and palates, remove oral and neck tumors and even
remove a set of wisdom teeth, Kotikian worked to educated the local
professionals in the newest techniques.
"It was a good way of giving back and educating them, and teaching
them the American standards," Kotkian said, "because they're mostly
trained with Russian techniques, which are very old school."
Technical education wasn't the only teaching Kotikian did, however. He
said that in the more rural parts of Armenia, like Karabagh, there
is a stigma attached to children born with cleft palates or lips.
"When these kids are born with cleft lip or palates, or any other
facial defect, they think the kid is abnormal," he said "What they
do there, unfortunately, is when these kids are born with these cleft
lips they give them up for adoption."
Kotkian said he worked to teach the local populace that cleft lips
and palates were common issues that could be fixed.
"It's the second most common anomaly after clubfoot, and it could
be corrected...it doesn't mean the patient has any mental issues or
anything else," he said. "It's a simple defect that can be repaired,
and it happens."
Still, said Kotikian, plenty of work remains, which is why he's
working with the Armenian-American Medical Society, based in Glendale,
to establish a bi-yearly mission to the area.
"What I would do is try to spend more time there, No. 1, because the
more time there, the greater the opportunities," he said. "Second of
all, I'd want to take my instruments and actually donate them...so
they'd actually have them and be able to use them on future patients."
Ultimately, Kotikian said he's hoping his efforts manage to touch
more than just the people of Karabagh.
"The biggest reason I wrote [the article] was to encourage people to
volunteer their time," he said. "Everyone can make time if they want."