Everybody deserves good quality care in terms of the medicine I really think
that it is fair if the patient knows the surgery, knows the
treatment, but doesn't get it. Well it's his own choice, it's a fair situation, but
I think it's unfair if the patient wasn't able to get surgery because
he didn't know about the presence of the surgery.
Good morning, good to see you again Helen.
How are you today? Great. So you've been very busy I hear you recently visited Vietnam
Can you tell me a bit about that trip? What took you to Vietnam?
To train how to do the penile implant in Vietnam so it was a very honorable
moment for me because it was the first time in Vietnam's
history in doing the inflatable penile prosthesis
So that's why I went there. So a very monumental trip. How much experience
do you have in this field. I've been in this field for past seven years now
and I have done around a little more than a thousand cases of the inflatable
penile implants. That may not like sound a lot of cases but I usually big implanters
in the U.S. the criteria is 25 cases per year If they do more than 25 cases per
year they can be named as a big implanter but I usually have done about
more than 200 cases a year so actually outside the US I may be doing the most
cases yearly. How was the Vietnamese Hospital? How did you find the staff and
surgeons there? I arrived in Vietnam at 11:10 p.m. and they were waiting for me
right in front of the airplane exit. It was late but they were still working
waiting for me and to greet me so they were very passionate and
enthusiastic people. They were so excited for your visit. Yeah it
looked like that so I've never gotten flowers at the airport; that's my first time.
And everybody was watching me like, "What the heck?"
What was the first thing you had to do when you came to the hospital?
First thing I had to do was to show the surgeons how to do the surgery to give
them a heads up about the procedures we are going to do and show them the video
of the surgery so that they can understand and expect what we'll go
through. I understand there were two surgeries that day for the first one you
performed can you tell me about how that went? The first case it is better to show
them how to do it and while doing so you have to be hands-on. Let their hands
go on the patients as well. So you do this side as we have a left & right
side. I do right side, they do left side. Back and forth, so they can take part in the
surgery so that's how the first case went. And the second surgery
then was performed by the Vietnamese surgeon.
So next case it should be led by him he was in the surgeon's position I
was in the assistant position and I was trying to you know ask him questions
like, "Okay doctor, what's next?" So, I was questioning, "What's
next, what's next?" So that he can remember every single
point and every single important step.
I won't be there and I can't be there, right? I have to come back here, so he
should be able to run on his own but I just wanted to give him very important pointers
to remember. As this was the very first penile implant case in
Vietnam, we heard a lot of people came to watch the surgery was it just the staff?
You had to see the site, when I was doing the first case, I wasn't
able to see it, but guys who were sitting there, told me there
was a TV broadcasting team and camera was on live and the 30 other
surgeons were around us and 20 more outside the room was watching the
surgery. So can you tell me more about the broadcasting in Vietnam? It was
like a national broadcasting party like in Korea's KBS or
MBC and in your country BBC. After all the
surgeries were done, all the official workshops were closed and at the dinner
they told us that at 6:30 in the Vietnam time at that day the event we
had was on TV on the main broadcasting station. It looked like a huge
event in Vietnam. The hospital which held all these events
was the People's 115 Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City so more
than 2,000 beds hospital. 2,000 beds is almost as big Asan Hospital or
something like that, one of the biggest hospitals in South
Korea. A huge hospital with a lot of attention there so it was a very
interesting experience and a very exciting experience for me because I I
never knew that I will be on the you know TV screen talking about the
penile implant. And there was not only training involved I
understand there was a presentation and a question-and-answer session?
They wanted to talk about everything on a penile implant from
pre-op to post operation and everything so I take the general aspect
of the penile implant. It was a long talk I had - they gave me 45 minutes
which was the longest have I ever done. And how do you feel your presentation
was received?
I don't know actually because most of people were using the
translators so someone was translating my words in Vietnamese I don't know how
they translated but they kept asking me questions after the talk maybe I was
able to give them some some curiosity as well. So how do you make time for these
trainings besides already running your own Center?
I was trained by Dr. Wilson in the U.S. He has trained more than
3,000 surgeons around the world. He has been in this field for the past 42 years
I call him papa because he showed me how to live one's own life
At a certain point we all understand that money is not everything and I always
wanted to be like Dr. Wilson. Papa has always been very enthusiastic of the
training new young surgeons. Let's say if I'm gone if I die my surgical skills
will be lost as well. Someone should carry the torch for the next generation
and would you like to do it again in the future if they want me I'll always
go there and now my next trip is to Saudi, so I haven't been to Arabian
countries before I don't know any people actually coming from there but still
there's a great excitement for me guys I want to see and know their culture and
the system and their circumstances as well
How do you think that will be different to your trip to Vietnam? Honestly I don't
know I can only tell you after I go there, so I'm very happy I'm very excited at the same
time becoming pressured as well so that because I have to prepare very well so
that I can help them when I go there. I wish you lots of luck in Saudi Arabia
Thank you for coming to speak to us today
Great moment and I hope to see you again soon