Maurice King’s marvellous medical book saved lives in Botswana | Letter

Christine Evans read the doctor’s obituary and recalls how his work proved invaluable in her early career in the 1960sI read with interest Maurice King’s obituary (Other lives, 15 November). He was a great man. He wrote an amazing book entitled Medical Care in Developing Countries, which was published 1966. I went to Botswana in 1968, aged 25, and took the book with me as diseases there were completely different – mainly infections, TB, bilharzia and snakebites. It was invaluable in a two-doctor hospital in Lobatse, and saved a few lives.The other book I took with me was Farquharson’s Textbook of Operative General Surgery, which was like a recipe book – ie, cut along the dotted line. You just needed to know your anatomy. I did my first tracheostomy reading from the book, held by a nurse, while doing it. Wonderful times. Continue reading...