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Because you don't know what real poverty is like (neither do I)? I remember a story from one of Atul Gawande's books (was it Complications?) about how rural Ind
by throwaway8941 7y ago
Because you don't know what real poverty is like (neither do I)? I remember a story from one of Atul Gawande's books (was it Complications?) about how rural Indian surgeons operate. As he described it, they were missing many kinds of equipment that western surgeons consider absolutely indispensable in doing their work. They replaced it with whatever was available, stuff like plastic piping from the nearest plumbing store, which then comes into contact with the entrails of the patient, so to speak.
- stubish 7y ago(assuming the anecdote is correct) Rummaging around in the rubbish for a syringe is not about poverty, except perhaps that in real poverty you only have access to the worst doctors or none at all. Even if economics make fresh needles impossible, it takes so little effort make an attempt to sterilize that this sort of behavior is criminal. Start by not storing needles you might want to reuse in the rubbish bin and donations of scraps of wood to boil water.
- hn_throwaway_99 7y agoThe point is if you are in real poverty, doing nothing is cheaper and healthier than reusing a syringe.
- zbentley 7y agoThat was in the book "Better". They found surgical tubing at a nearby market (not a plumbing store, presumably some sort of medical resale), and sterilized it with a steam autoclave before implanting it in a patient suffering from ... some form of meningitis, I believe?