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Book Reviews
| Peter Pitt, The Scalpel and the Kukri: A Surgeon and his Family's Adventures among the Gurkhas (Dunmow, UK: Peter Pitt, 2005) ISBN 0-95-520590-5. 248 + xix pp.
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| Major Peter Pitt was a surgeon at the British Military Hospital (BMH) in Dharan in East Nepal between 1966 and 1968, having previously served as a military surgeon in Nigeria. The BMH, which was situated thirty miles from Nepal's border with India, opened in 1960 to look after the Gurkha soldiers serving in the recruiting depots, those on leave and the British staff and their families. Although referred to in the book as being relatively small, the BMH with approximately seventy beds was not small by Nepalese standards, because at this time Nepal had very limited hospital services and indeed outside the main centres still has. With its high level of resources compared with government services, the BMH—not surprisingly—also treated the surrounding population and retired Gurkha soldiers and their families, who often travelled considerable distances over difficult terrain to obtain treatment. |
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Peter Pitt's experiences as a surgeon—which are interspersed with the family's life during these two years—provide the basis for the book, which is divided into multiple short chapters grouped together in themes. Together they provide a rich snapshot of his time in Nepal. The strength of the book lies in the detailed descriptions of some of his cases that vividly portray the poverty and hardship of the lives of most Nepalese people and the challenges Pitt faced in his work. These included the relentlessness of always being on call, making wrong decisions or the very serious state in which patients often turned up at the hospital. Many arrived hours or days after an accident or becoming sick or had already consulted other practitioners. Small boys falling out of trees kept him busy in the mango season, but he required a wide range of expertise to deal with the many common and rare or difficult cases. Despite the compassion and good intentions of the staff, many patients must have found the military hospital a strange place. Pitt describes his own surprise on his arrival at finding that unlike its surroundings the base was 'an oasis of order and cleanliness' (p. 27). As he comments, he is not an authority on Nepal, but at times he provides tantalising glimpses into broader issues such as noting local resistance to the hospital in the early years and accusations of the British employing Nepalese nurses for immoral purposes (p. 50). |
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The Scalpel and The Kukri is Pitt's second book—to 'complete my narrative' (p. 13)—about his and his family's life in Nepal; it very much follows the same format as A Surgeon in Nepal (London: John Murray, 1970). An epilogue, however, records the drama near the end of British presence in Dharan, when in 1988 a powerful earthquake rocked the region and the hospital became a major centre for relief efforts. As in the earlier book, the realistic and detailed illustrations by George Douglas from Darjeeling are a highlight. An extensive glossary also aids the non-medical reader. Although the style is at times abrupt, the book will appeal to readers who would like to know more about medical practice and living in a country such as Nepal or who themselves have lived and worked in similar situations, whether in the 1960s or more recently. I smiled in recognition as I read about the luggage and the tape recorder on the family's arrival in Nepal.
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| SUSAN HEYDON
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| UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO |
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