Anaesthetics

Fieldset

Anaesthetics

Anaesthetists help patients manage pain in often unbearable circumstances.

Spread across various departments, they train local staff, manage anaesthesia materials, and support pain management, going wherever they are needed to provide comfort and support.

Innovative, compassionate and resourceful, anaesthetists give much-needed relief to suffering.

Read the blog posts below to find out more about life as an MSF anaesthetist, or click here to find out more about applying to join the team.

Wolfgang Funk

Anaesthetics

Football, family and a new challenge

Wolfgang travels by jeep from Goma to Mweso. A big project and an equally big challenge are waiting for him. But first Wolfgang looks for the most important thing: contact to the people.

11 Oct 2019 / 3 minute read

Wolfgang Funk

Anaesthetics

First stop: Goma

After more than 30 years in business and most recently in a management position, Wolfgang fulfilled a dream: he returned to his roots and set off into the unknown. He blogs from the start of his latest posting, the Democratic Republic of the Congo...

01 Oct 2019 / 3 minute read

Kariantti Kallio

Anaesthetics

No time for goodbyes: Leaving Bangui

After an assignment marked by violence, an MSF anaesthetist faces his next challenge: returning home.

29 Oct 2018 / 3 minute read

Kariantti Kallio

Anaesthetics

A first time for everything: learning fast in Bangui

With a patient bleeding heavily, Kariantti and the MSF team had to act quickly. He blogs from Bangui, Central African Republic...

09 Oct 2018 / 3 minute read

Kariantti Kallio

Anaesthetics

After the fight: Returning to routine in Bangui

After nearby conflict forced his MSF team to evacuate a maternity hospital in Bangui, Central African Republic, Finnish anaesthetist Kariantti writes about returning to routine in the days following the fighting.

01 Oct 2018 / 3 minute read

An MSF ambulance arrives at the Castor maternity hospital in Bangui.

Kariantti Kallio

Anaesthetics

Operating under fire: Keeping calm in Bangui

Fighting rages near an MSF maternity hospital in Bangui, Central African Republic. Inside, Finnish anaesthetist Kariantti and his team try to remain calm as they continue to operate on women in need of urgent obstetric surgery.

21 Sep 2018 / 4 minute read

Kariantti Kallio

Anaesthetics

“War isn’t just about gunshot wounds”: Maternity care in Bangui

Welcome to Castors maternity hospital, the “first and last line of defence” for mothers and newborns in Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic. Finnish anaesthetist Kariantti, just back from his second assignment with Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF), shares his experience of arriving at the lifesaving hospital.

10 Sep 2018 / 5 minute read

Kariantti Kallio

Anaesthetics

In the operating room in Yemen: All that you can’t leave behind

Earlier this year, Kariantti travelled to Yemen for his first posting with MSF - four weeks in the operating theatre in Khameer, where the team performs everything from emergency C-sections to treatment for gunshot wounds. This blog post is based on notes Kariantti wrote in May, just before he returned home to Finland...

07 Aug 2017 / 3 minute read

Kariantti Kallio

Anaesthetics

In the operating room: Yemen, Day 15

School is out for the summer in Yemen, but the cholera outbreak and ongoing civil war show no signs of slowing down. Anesthesiologist Kariantti blogs from Khameer...

18 Jun 2017 / 3 minute read