BAND-AID FOR A BROKEN LEG

A young doctor recounts his expriences – both hilarious and heartbreaking – working for Médecins Sans Frontières in Africa.

Damien Brown, a young Australian doctor, thinks he's ready when he arrives for his first posting with Médecins Sans Frontières in Africa. But the town he's sent to is an isolated outpost of mud huts, surrounded by landmines; the hospital, for which he's to be the only doctor, is filled with malnourished children and conditions he's never seen; and the health workers – Angolan war veterans twice his age who speak no English – walk out on him following an altercation on his first shift. In the months that follow, Damien confronts these challenges all the while dealing with the social absurdities of living with only three other volunteers for company. The medical calamities pile up – a leopard attack, a landmine explosion, and having to perform surgery using tools cleaned on the fire among them – but it's through Damien's evolving friendships with the local people that his passion for the work grows. Band-Aid for a Broken Leg is a powerful, sometimes heartbreaking, often funny, always honest and ultimately uplifting account of life on the medical frontline in Angola, Mozambique and South Sudan. It is also a moving testimony to the work done by medical humanitarian groups and the extraordinary and sometimes eccentric people who work for them. Damien Brown is an Australian doctor based in London. He began writing seriously after his last humanitarian posting, encouraged by readers of a blog he kept while working in Africa. This is Damien's first book.