A Frimley Park Hospital surgeon has taken her skills to El Salvador to help people living in one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world.

Consultant Valerie Nunez, 38, went with the charity Salcet in February to the earthquake-stricken country to give El Salvadorian surgeons some of the basic training that they don’t get.

“El Salvador has a three-tier health system,” Dr Nunez explains.

“At the top is the private healthcare for the rich, then there is insured healthcare which tends to be for professionals as they get cover with good jobs. Last, there is their version of the NHS, and there is only one public hospital in the country in the capital San Salvador.

“So the people and doctors have to cope with what they have. There are no ambulances so if you get hurt you have to walk or get a lift to get help. It’s not the best place to get injured.”

Dr Nunez went out with five other UK surgeons in February to teach basic theatre operating skills to surgeons who have to deal with some of the world’s worst natural disasters, such the devastating series of earthquakes of 2001 which killed over 1,000 people.

El Salvador sits on three fault lines, has 12 volcanoes and is usually hit by the tail end of hurricanes from Caribbean.

Dr Nunez said: “The Salvadorian surgeons have to get most of their training on the job. 

“We gave them a course that all surgeons in the UK have to do before they can be sent up for surgery, it covers basic surgery techniques.

"Before we arrived all they had were two old leather rawhides for practising sutures. We went down to the local abattoir to source some pigs’ guts, aortas and trotters so they could practice more realistically.”

Godalming GP Dr Chris Jagger started the charity which organised the trip, Salcet (Salvadorian Children’s Earthquake Trust), seven years ago. He was a witness to the catastrophic earthquake of February 13 2001.

His wife and Salcet treasurer, Maggie Jagger, described the experience that moved him to set up Salcet: “Chris went to El Salvador to assess the medical response to natural disasters after the first earthquake happened in January 2001.

"He was there when the second struck and, luckily, he wasn’t hurt. In the aftermath he ended up going to some of the worst-hit areas, where the villages had been completely smashed, to help the victims.

“While he was there he formed strong ties with the people he helped and went back again in 2002. I went with him in 2003 and we have been going back every year ever since to help and bring them medical supplies.”

“This was the first year that we did the surgical course we hope to build on that. Valerie was brilliant, she’s a Spanish speaker which is great because that is what they speak there. It all worked out brilliantly.”

Dr Nunez, an orthopaedic surgeon who specialises in hands, said that she hopes to return next year to continue the work and told of how moved she was by the people she met there.

“They were lovely people,” she said. “No matter what life throws at them they are always smiling.”

If you want to find you more about Salcet and their work you can visit them at www.salcet.com.