A Surgeon in the Village: An American Doctor Teaches Brain Surgery in Africa

At a time when so many nations lack proper medical care, Bartelme, the senior projects reporter for the Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C., tells the story of courageous Dr. Dilan Ellegala, a talented Harvard-trained neurosurgeon, who seeks to bring meaning to his life with compassionate outreach. Bartelme takes the reader on the humanistic journey of the Sri Lanka native in his arduous medical school training, his grinding rotations of performing delicate operations in a New York facility, and his challenging decision to take a position at an understaffed missionary hospital in Tanzania. Some of the segments in the biography are quite clinical in their graphic depictions of the history of brain medicine and the current procedures. The doctor explains the brain surgeon’s view: “You were touching a person’s past and dreams, everything a person is and would be.” Tanzania has only three neurosurgeons for 43 million people, so Ellegala begins an effective training program with young medical workers in a new group, Madaktari, that’s designed to prepare doctors to serve in the global health crisis. Noting the shortage of surgeons, Bartelme writes knowingly of the dedication of a valiant doctor determined to change how modern medicine interacts with the world. (Mar.)