From the introduction to Chapter 2:
A pregnant woman in labor begins bleeding. Placenta previa, the placenta blocking the birth canal, is diagnosed. An urgent cesarean section saves the child and prevents her from bleeding to death. A few months later the child repeatedly projectile vomits after eating. Pyloric stenosis, a muscular blockage of the small intestine, is diagnosed. An operation eliminates the blockage. A few years later the child develops right–sided abdominal pain, fever and nausea, appendicitis is diagnosed. An operation removes a gangrenous appendix. In many countries millions of children have no access to such operations and die. Yet in high income countries these three procedures are readily available and save lives. These three procedures saved my life; I was that child.
From stitches in the emergency room to cleft lip repairs and resections of abdominal tumors, children frequently need access to surgical care. In fact traumatic injuries are currently the greatest cause of death for children age 5 to 15 and millions more are permanently disabled because of a lack of surgical care.
To address the surgical needs of children around the world, a public health approach is needed. One success story of a devastating condition that is frequently seen in LMICs is clubfoot. Although clubfoot is treatable and correctable with a simple procedure, hundreds of thousands of untreated cases exist globally.
To help save the lives of children around the world, we need to identify what works from successful programs and expand those lessons to countless other conditions which affect people everywhere. The case study in this chapter describes a problem: club feet in children in Nepal; and a solution: a project to correct the deformity.
To read more about a case study of clubfoot in Nepal, check out Chapter 2 in Operation Health: Surgical care in the developing world.
Operation Health: A series of books on surgery and global health from Johns Hopkins University Press 