On call for emergencies one evening, I cared for a elderly man with acute bleeding into his bladder. This caused obstruction of urine outflow, a huge bladder, and extreme pain. Simply placing a Foley catheter thru the penis or directly through the abdominal into the bladder was no solution, since the clots obstructed any hope of outflow. I was at the end of my expertise.

I called Annelise Olsen, Lubango Evangelical Medical Center’s who walked me through my first transvesical prostatectomy. The field of general surgery in North American has become so compressed by surgical sub-specialists that there’s relatively little remaining for the generalist. But out here, a truly general surgeon can enjoy the entire spectrum. And when a family physician like myself confronts a hellacious situation, I’m grateful that uniquely a talented surgeon like Annelise Olsen is on back up.