First Estonian civilian surgeon starts work in Afghanistan

The first Estonian civilian surgeon to work in Afghanistan, Reserve Capt. Tiit Meren, was scheduled to head for Afghanistan to start working at the military hospital at the Camp Bastion base.

The hospital at Camp Bastion treats NATO soldiers and locals who have sustained injuries in battles and insurgent attacks, military spokespeople in Tallinn said.

"British military surgeons say that you have to go to war to become a real surgeon. The systematic and intensive nature of military me-dicine provides every surgeon with extra qualities, since in a war as many things happen in a day as in civilian life during a year," Meren was quoted as saying.

Meren, a specialist in vascular surgery, is a graduate of Tartu University. He worked at the cardio surgical clinic of the University of Zurich from 1988-1989 and 1993-1994.

He is one of the founders and owners of the Clinic for Restorative Surgery in Estonia.
Meren has graduated from the reserve of officers’ course and served as chairman of the external relations commission of the Estonian Reserve Officers Association. He has also been the representative for Estonian medical officers at the NATO reserve officers association for eight years.

The new field hospital at Camp Bastion that opened in February 2008 features a department for emergency medicine and a surgical department with two operating rooms.

The hospital team consists of about one hundred medics and the number of beds is 30.

Some 140 Estonian military personnel are serving on the mission in Afghanistan, most of them in Helmand province in the country's south.