• Question: How was working at South Africa as a doctor. It was difficult?

    Asked by anon-189197 to Michael on 5 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Mike Ambler

      Mike Ambler answered on 5 Nov 2018:


      Hi! Good question – have you been to South Africa?

      It was pretty difficult: the shifts were sometimes 26 hours long with no sleep! And I had only been working as a doctor for 2 years when I went, so I still had lots to learn. And also, we never see things like snake bites in the UK but in South Africa it was common.

      But it was also fantastic. There were some really special people there. Sometimes we would see a person drive their neighbour to the hospital from miles and miles away to get treatment, and they’d wait for a long time while the person was treated so that they could bring them home again – there was a great sense of community.

      Also, I got to fly in the helicopter ambulance, which was amazing – flying over nature reserves and looking down on giraffes and elephants!

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