Palomar Health Surgeons Volunteer Their Time to Help Trauma Patients in Vietnam

A group of American orthopedic surgeons, led by Palomar Health Orthopedic Trauma Surgeon Serge Kaska, MD, are changing the lives of patients living in Hanoi and Ha Giang, Vietnam who suffer from untreated traumatic injuries.

Kaska made his fifth annual pilgrimage to Vietnam the last week of May with Palomar Health Sports Medicine Specialist Kevin Owsley, MD, and 3 other orthopedic surgeons from Ventura County. Kaska made his first trip to Vietnam with a group of plastic surgeons in 2015.

“I saw some of the most incredible cases I’d seen in my entire career in one day,” Kaska said of that first trip.

After gaining the trust of local physicians on his first day, he started performing surgeries on Vietnamese patients the second day. He considers his time in the operating room an exchange of skills. He says Vietnamese doctors have their own way of doing things and use equipment he’s not used to, but they are effective nonetheless. In return, the Vietnamese physicians love to learn from him and the other American doctors. The American physicians perform surgeries as unpaid volunteers.

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