Each camp screens 400+ patients over two days, of whom 70 to 120 are taken up for surgery. The surgical team is compact but experienced: one hand surgeon, two to three plastic surgeons, three to four senior anaesthetists, backed by the nursing and support staff of the local hospital.
Every member of the team has 15 to 30 years of experience or more, nothing is ever experimental. The host hospital needs to accommodate 3 to 4 operating tables across two spacious theatres.
The numbers tell their own story: a camp typically costs 3 to 4 lakh rupees to run, but saves the population it serves close to a crore in what they'd otherwise have spent, or simply never been able to afford, for the same care.
None of this happens without the volunteers. The Agarwal Club, Pune, has built genuinely exceptional organisational machinery around these camps, a chief anchor, plus dedicated teams for publicity, documentation, transport, medicine collection, hospitality, accommodation, and coordination, among others. Rotary Club and Giants International are among the other social bodies that have contributed to making these camps successful.
Three weeks after each camp, we hold a follow-up clinic to document outcomes and fit patients with dynamic splints where needed, teaching relatives how to use them. This single step has done more than almost anything else to prevent deformities from recurring.
I remember one follow-up camp I reached after an overnight train journey, in the middle of a heavy overnight downpour. Attendance was thin, one child lived nearly 80 km away and couldn't make it in the rain. I asked the volunteers to drive me to the village instead. They did. I ended up fabricating the splints the child needed at a roadside tea stall, needless to say, I always carry all the gadgets I need in my haversack! A Western-trained, qualified hand surgeon, preparing dynamic splints for rural folk at a nondescript roadside tea stall!
