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Local therapist heals hands in Bangladesh
By Derek Hodges
A song released in the early 1970s by the O’Jays calls on “people all over the world (to) join hands.”
Sylva hand therapist Susie Ransbottom took that message to heart when she spent several weeks on the other side of the world helping heal the hands of Bangladesh residents.
Ransbottom, who has been an occupational therapist specializing in hand therapy for the last 10 years with WestCare Health System, began participating in international health care trips seven years ago. This is her fourth trip with Interplast, which was the first international humanitarian organization to provide free reconstructive plastic surgery in developing countries.
Sylva medical professional Susie Ransbottom, left, recently visited Bangladesh with Interplast, an international health care agency. Ransbottom and her team provided free medical attention to those who could not afford it otherwise. Ransbottom, an occupational therapist who specializes in hand therapy, has made four trips with Interplast.
More than 200 medical professionals volunteered to participate in Interplast programs last year. The agency supplies teams with some health care products and connects them with medical professionals in the areas they travel to. They provide services in 13 countries around the world.
Ransbottom was first introduced to Interplast by an Asheville hand surgeon.
“He invited me, and I couldn’t say ‘no,’” she said. “This program is a matter of going to another country and providing medical services that they never would have. It does a lot of good in impoverished nations.”
On previous trips Ransbottom worked in Brazil, Honduras and Myanmar. However, the Bangladesh trip proved the most challenging so far, she said.
While Ransbottom’s team was in Bangladesh, they faced several challenges. Shortly after they arrived, they were informed their Interplast supplies had been held up by an airport official. The official – who Ransbottom said had a grudge against the program because he did not like the way his mother had been treated by doctors – forced the group to “jump through all kinds of hoops” to obtain the supplies, Ransbottom said.
It took eight days for the group to receive the much-needed equipment. For the time in between they were forced to make do with the already-limited supplies of local doctors, and Ransbottom was forced to use outdated equipment.
“To assist in hand therapy responsibilities, the chief Bangladesh physician found a box of supplies in storage,” Ransbottom said. “Splint material has a one-year shelf life and some of this material had been discontinued more than five years ago.”
The past-prime materials were virtually impossible to work with, Ransbottom said. In addition to the faulty splints, Ransbottom was forced to use dull, 15-inch-long scissors in her procedures.
“The scissors were quite a sight and earned me the nickname ‘Susie Scissorhands,’” she said.
Unfortunately for Ransbottom, Interplast does not offer supplies for hand therapists. Finding those would have been tough if it had not been for several generous businesses.
Ransbottom was lucky to find donors at Sylva Orthopedics and DeRoyal Co. who provided her with needed materials. WestCare also helped her obtain supplies at a discounted rate.
Another very serious threat to the team’s work came from terrorists.
The area the Interplast surgeons worked in was hit by small bombs throughout the time the team spent there.
“The officials almost made us leave. The only reason they didn’t is because the bombs weren’t geared at Americans,” Ransbottom said.
The bombings were triggered by political unrest in Bangladesh, she said. Ransbottom recalls one bombing victim who was brought into the hospital she worked in.
“I could hear him out in the hall crying for Allah,” she said.
Shortly after the team left, one area they had spent a lot of time in was bombed, she said.
While the bombings weren’t directed at Americans, there was still a lot of anti-American sentiment, Ransbottom said.
“People would ask us where we were from and when we would say ‘America,’ they would just turn their backs to us,” she said. “We realized it wasn’t happening to the others from our group, including the people from Canada. So, they started encouraging us to say we were from Canada. It was really disheartening that we had come all that way to help them and we were treated that way.”
Much of the anti-American feeling in the mostly-Muslim country was directed at President George Bush and the decision to invade Iraq, Ransbottom said.
Despite the opinions of some on the street, the patients treated by American doctors appreciated the help they were given, Ransbottom said.
“The people that received the care were very grateful. They just wanted to be around us and laugh and talk,” she said.
The patients Ransbottom saw were poor, and the medical care she provided was of a nature that many of them needed, but could likely never afford it.
“We went to one of the neighborhoods there and it was so sad,” she said. “The people live in old ruins; they live in slums.”
The majority of patients Ransbottom saw were afflicted with some sort of debilitating injury from a burn or birth defect. Because the people are so poor, burns do not receive proper care at the time they are inflicted, she said. That leads to infections, illness and deformity.
Ransbottom’s primary job was wound care following the surgeries, she said. That included making splints and braces, and teaching the patients exercises to aid their recovery. She also helped train the Bangladeshi doctors in follow-up care for wounds.
Through all the challenges of the trip, Ransbottom said she still appreciates the opportunity to go.
“It’s really an incredible experience,” she said. “You’re helping people that need you. It really makes me appreciate what we have here.”
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