MSU go under the knife
Adriana Kuci
First published July 23, 2003
Thanks to the good will and knowledge of Captain Doctor
Alessandro Rauccio and his team, more than 300 people, had
the benefit of first class medical treatment. Members of the
MSU, Italian soldiers from other military units, and local
employees, solved their problems with skin growths and bed
scars on their hands or ears, which had irritated them for
years.
Sarajevo - Capt. Dr. Rauccio arrived in Sarajevo at the beginning
of April as part of the Army of Carabinieri. Originally he
was due to be the doctor for the Military Specialized Unit
(MSU) for only 45 days, but when he first arrived, no one
knew of his specialist skills.
Particularly, his duties were to provide general health care
to the members of the MSU, and local staff that are employed
there. He of course attempted to do all the best he could,
and was very considerate with all his patients. But, not long
after his arriving in Sarajevo, one of his colleges from Medical
Section complained of a fatty tissue growth on his stomach.
Under the Knife
Capt. Dr. Rauccio turned out to be a specialist in plastic
surgery, with years of experience in most kinds of plastic
and esthetic surgery. He decided to do a small insertion and
remove the tissue from his colleges stomach. The operation
was completed very successfully, and the patient was able
to work on same day. News about this "new doctors"
skills traveled very fast in the MSU camp. In the following
days many officers, soldiers, and local employees asked for
the doctors help, to remove fat tissues and other growths
on or under the skin, and also to do varoius corrections on
ears and fingers.
MSU Commander Col. A. Colacicco decided that Capt. Dr. Rauccio
would have to stay for now that his skills had been discovered.
From the day that he carried out his first surgery, until
the day he left, he carried out more than three hundred operations,
all under local anesthesia. Not one of them had any kind of
complication, or stayed out of duties for a single day!
Three Hundred Operations
Capt. Dr. Rauccio wanted to do something with his team, Marshall
Francesco Finocchiaro, Brigadier Antonello Arba, Carabiniere
Giusppe Manzo and Dario Tusconi, to help to the local citizens
with same or similar problems for free. "All my life
I have had a special passion for medical science, but plastic
surgery, which makes it possible to help people either on
a functional or esthetic way, is my real passion. That way
I could find enough time to take care about all healthy problems
of my patients, and extra time to do all those corrective
interventions. Of course, all of this would not be possible
without the special support, which my team had from the MSU
Commander, Col. A. Colacicco", said Capt. Dr. Rauccio.
Capt. Dr. Rauccio and his team decided to spend their spare
time doing surgeries, and in a few cases they had to operate
in the middle of the night, but this didn't stop them though.
Capt. Dr. Rauccio and his assistants will remain in the memories
of all those they managed to help for a long time.
Related link:
Nations of SFOR: Italy
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