Greek-American surgeon says Greece needs trauma facilities
George Velmahos, a Greek-American surgeon working at the Massachusetts General Hospital who helped treat victims of Monday’s Boston bombing has said that Greece has no proper trauma facilities.
In an interview with The National Herald, the Greek-American community newspaper, Velmahos said it was of prime importance that Greek authorities set up specific facilities for the treatment of traumas which remain the single most common cause of death for those aged under 45.
Velmahos, who was born in Athens and teaches at Harvard, told The National Herald that had made several proposals to contribute toward the creation of a central trauma facility in Greece, similar to the one in operation at the Massachusetts General Hospital, but that he had received no response. He noted that the high rate of injury from road accidents in Greece and, increasingly, from violent assaults, meant a trauma unit would save lives. He noted that there is more focus in Greece “on liver transplants that will help 10 people than on trauma facilities that are needed by thousands, especially young people.”
