Band-Aid for a Broken Leg: Being a Doctor with No Borders (And Other Ways to Stay Single): Written by Damien Brown, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Allen & Unwin [Paperback] Paperback – 21 Feb. 2014

This book details the real story of Dr Damien Brown, a 29 year old Australian serving as a volunteer doctor in Angola with MSF - Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without borders). The book beautifully sums up the brilliant work completed by many MSF volunteers serving in unknown foreign countries. The book is a rollercoaster of emotions, making you sad, making you laugh, making you feeling inspire or debating the true effect of volunteer work in less economically developed countries. Damien tells the reader how an ordinary person reacts under the "interesting" conditions abroad.Dr. Brown is sent to Mavinga, South-East Angola on his first assignment for MSF as the only doctor living there. The outpost has only basic mud huts and many landmines circling the town, scars of the long Angolan civil war. Brown goes in knowing very little of the native language of Angola, Portuguese and has an interesting six month stay in Angola. The book reveals some of the shocking and inspiring stories that occur everyday. Some notable events include: Trying to understand under trained Angolan health workers (many Ex military medics), treating malnourished babies and sterilizing surgical equipment using a basic fire.The book also details the author's experience returning to Melbourne, Australia and serving a short time in Mozambique as well as six months in Nasir, South Sudan. The book is truly inspirational and is my personal favorite read. I would suggest if you are in any doubt of buying it - just go for it, you won't regret it!

I read this in a day. It's a fascinating insight into the life of a Western doctor thrown into some of the toughest places on earth. Vividly written, you can almost see, smell and hear the places he describes. It made me laugh, feel desperately sad and even angry - at the disparities between countries and human nature.

From the dialogue to the descriptions of Angola, Mozambique and Sudan, the writing is so engaging. The personal conflicts and frustrations of an aid worker in the field were thought provoking. The author acknowledges he is parachuted into a place where he cannot relate to his local colleagues and patients who have endured decades of civil war and poverty and at times cannot understand his role. There are softer moments in dealing with the relationships between the small team of ex-pats and how they try to relate to ordinary society.

Working for an organisation like Medecins Sans Frontier as a doctor caring for the sick in some desperately poor part of the world must at first sight seem the dream job for those of us who care about humanity. Yet here is the true story of such a life and rather than a dream it often comes across as a nightmare. While the book tells of the achievements despite the limited resources, it shows up not just the expected hardships living somewhere so remote and poor but also the frustrations and towards the end the anger at the suffering that is preventable but is not for many reasons, not least in one tragic example the sheer stubborness of a husband who refuses simple lifesaving treatment for his wife. This book is a powerful witness of life as a MSF doctor and I am left humbled at the dedication of the author and his colleagues for the sacrifices they make doing this amazing work.

I have friends who work for aid agencies so I'm always interested in first hand accounts of what drives seemingly logical and rational people to put themselves in the way of serious physical harm in order to help others. Damien Brown's book is a great read - though if I were pushed to criticise, I enjoyed the first half in Angola a lot more than the second half in Mozambique and Sudan. Sadly, that's probably the same case for the author - that he enjoyed the first half and became a bit more jaded, frightened, exhausted in the second.The book is filled with things that will baffle and amaze you, entertain and make you happy but also leave you feeling desperately sad that so many people have access to so little medicine. In every chapter there are deaths due to diseases that could have easily been fixed in a first world hospital but the more depressing deaths and injuries are the ones caused by clans shooting one another.The ups and downs of life as an MSF volunteer are fascinating and the book is well worth a read.

Beautifully written, fast-moving, this is a fantastic read that I found very difficult to put down.Dr Brown's modest, understated storytelling effortlessly brings the people and characters to life, and provokes as many questions as he purports to answer.Can't wait for the prequel!

A book as chilling and upsetting as it is uplifting, the author deftly weaves a strain of humour through what would otherwise be an unrelentingly bleak series of events. An accessible and thoroughly entertaining read for anyone with a passing interest in the dysfunction and difficulties faced by aid organizations the world over.

I read this and marvelled at the conditions that the Medecins Sans Frontieres doctors have to work under. It is certainly chastening to think of how we moan about the NHS and yet we are so well served by it compared with the war zones and disaster zones of the Third World. It is a positive book, full of cheering stories and wonderful characters.

I thoroughly loved reading this book. It gives a first person insight into the world of medical humanitarian action in some of the world's worst affected places. It is simple, honest and raw. It stays true to the ground reality and makes you connect to the author in a very genuine manner. I would recommend it to everyone who works with a humanitarian organisation.

What a delightful book. Beautifully written and so insightful. At times I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. I was able to relate to so much of it – I am both an ICU and an OR nurse, but unlike these amazing MSF volunteers, I ashamedly (and cowardly!) prefer the security of being surrounded by state-of-the-art machinery in a modern hospital. I am a South African now living in Kenya and I’ve witnessed many of the dire conditions he mentions and I'm in total awe of anyone who chooses to work in these situations.I see that one reviewer wrote: “there was too much use of the "F" word which totally spoilt the book”. Well I'm a prude and I hardly noticed them and actually I'm surprised there weren't more of them!! This is not a fairy tale.

Dieses Buch gibt einen guten Eindruck darüber was Ärtze ohne Grenzen tut und wie alles genau funktioniert. Also für jene Leser geeignet die sich mit dem Thema Katastrophenhilfe beschäftigen. In dem Buch wird alles klar dargestellt, es gibt keine unnötigen Verschönerungen von Grausamkeiten. Ich würde nicht sagen dass es nichts für schwache Nerven ist aber es gibt schon Seiten wo man sich ärgert oder einfach denkt WTF. Im ganzen sehr gut gelungen, es weckt sämtliche Gefühle, was für mich auch ein gutes Buch bedeutet.Hinzuzufügen sind auch die kulturellen Unterschiede die hier sehr stark zum Vorschein kommen. Diese Teams sind aus vielen verschiedenen Regionen der Welt zusammengewürfelt. Daraus folgt dann auch kulturelles Chaos. Sehr interessant zu verfolgen wie dies gelöst wird. Speziell möchte ich auch allen Afrika Interessierten zu diesem Buch raten da die Schauplätze allesamt in afrikanischen Gebieten stattfinden. Im Buch befinden sich auch eine Menge Bilder die im Zusammenhang zur Geschichte stehen. Das verleiht noch einen extra Eindruck und hat mich persönlich noch weiter in das Buch gebracht.Einzig was ich beklagen muss ist die etwas komplizierte Sprache. Ich würde sagen Englische Bücher zu lesen ist für mich null problemo da ich das zu tausenden gemacht habe aber dieses Buch hat mich teilweise an die Grenzen meiner sprachlichen Fähigkeiten gebracht. Es ist sehr hoch englisch geschrieben, teilweise auch Vokabeln aus dem Altenglisch, dann hat man schon seine Mühen aber wenn man sich mal eingelesen hat dann gehts. Für mich jetzt nicht so ein Problem dass ich einen Stern abziehen würde schließlich kann man eine Menge bezüglich Sprache dazulernen. Dann werte ich das Mal als positiv.

展示にせよ、帰国報告会にせよ、ことこの貧困にまつわる話では私にはどこか「楽しい」様に話を作って行く技術こそが、この問題とタックルし続けて行ける、ひいては解決に近付けて行ける最良の方法だと思うのですが。この本は作者の医師、ダミアン・ブラウンさんのその種の才能と努力によって見事にそう出来ている類い稀な読み物だと思えます。まず、楽しいと思える、読みながらの味わいが。また深刻な状況ほど、落ち込まない気持ちや態度が必要だというのが職業柄でもある彼は、やはり素晴らしく優秀な方でもあると思えます。まず若いという現実もこの本の雰囲気の下支えになって読み易くなっているのかも知れません。若き日に旅をせよ的に。02年に30年続いた内戦が終わったアンゴラ、その４年後のアンゴラの最も傷跡が残り癒えない地域にまず派遣されます。初日の混沌からすでに読者は「待ったなし」のひょえ～という、向こうでは日常の事態に遭遇する彼と一心同体みたいになるでしょう。右も左も分からない状況。でも何とかしなければならない状況。でも何がなんやらです。そのあたふた感を書いてくれる事が、どうなる？どうなる！と読み進めて行ける大きな後押しになる。以下、その様に進む本書です。スーダン他数ヵ国での従事する紀行文です。オーストラリア人ですが、生まれたのは南アフリカで、移民家族としてオーストラリア人になった彼。アンゴラに派遣されたのは何かの運命的な事でもあります。ブラウン医師のお父さんが南アフリカの市民兵としてアンゴラ内戦に出兵した経緯もあるのだから。ペルーやタイでまず医療ボランティアをした、その時期に、トイレットペーパーひと巻きやリンゴ１個(だったかな)を売って歩く子供や大人を見て「医療になどたどり着けない」人の現実を見た彼は、同じ現実に直面する誰かを助ける人になりたいと思う。そしてこの国境なき医師団というエイドグループに参加する事になる。同じ場所に旅行をする人も多い。しかしそこで何を見て何を感じるかで、人生も変わる見本でもありそうです。貧困と共にそんな、私たちの日々の旅や日常までにも優しく及んでくる本書はとても意義深いと思えます。ダミアンさんみたいな人はいっぱいいるのだろうなぁ。私もレビューからそんな１人に多少なりとも近付けて行けるなら嬉しく思います。繰り返しますが、まず読むのが面白いです。それは本書のタイトルからも分かりそうです。しかし世界十指に入る地雷埋設の濃さを抱えるアンゴラの問題は未だに生活や学校、流通も産業も阻むでしょう。多くの原因の死にも出会ってしまう。ブラウンさん達や地元の人達の現在も続く頑張りには只々敬服するのみです。誰が善人で悪人か分からない、そんな中で仕事をする大変さも私もアジアの内戦後の地で経験したので「外から来た人」としての苦労も隅々まで分かる気がして…。読むのが止められないのは一緒に闘っている気になるのかも知れません。しかし結局、単語と言い回しがネイティブではない私には難し過ぎて、160ページまで読みましたがそれ以上は読書が続きませんでした。残念です。

I won't go into depth describing this book since others have done it so well already, but I will say that this is a must-read for anyone interested in aid work. I have barely been able to put it down. The narrative is well-formulated and the content fascinating. Extremely thought-provoking piece of literature, with an insightful author who, in spite of the usually-serious subject matter, had me laughing out loud multiple times!