In this fast paced narrative ex-SAS surgeon Richard Villar provides 'a very personal insight into the difficulties dangers & occasional virtual impossibility of providing medical aid to disaster areas & war zones. He shares his remarkable experiences in the aftermath of three major earthquakes
- Kashmir (2005) Java (2006) & Haiti (2010)
- as well as in the Libyan civil war (2011). Readers are given a no-holds-barred introduction to a world which the vast majority will have only scant knowledge of. The author describes what happens on the ground before a full aid programme swings into action. Arriving in a stricken area with the infrastructure destroyed his small dedicated team can take nothing for granted; water power shelter & the rule of law are likely to be non-existent & disease & shortages of food & water ever present. They meet challenges that the rest of us can only imagine & are under intense pressure to help comfort & sustain overwhelming numbers of trauma struck men women & children whose worlds have been turned upside down. Winged Scalpel is not only a riveting read but highly instructional & informative. From his own point of view the author's experiences prove that 'you can take a man out of the SAS but you cannot take the SAS out of the man'.