Two years.
That was how long I spent away. At the New York Medical Summit, applause followed the final slide of my presentation.
Behind me was a diagram of the micro-neurosurgical technique I had helped pioneer, a method designed to restore nerve function in trauma patients.
The work had taken shape in clinics where equipment and trained hands were always in short supply.
I held up my hands for the audience. The scars were still there, crossing my skin in pale lines, but my hands were steady.
They could assist, guide, and teach younger surgeons, even if they would never hold a scalpel again.
Two years in field hospitals had led me back to medicine by another route.
The doctors beside me had relied on my knowledge. My damaged hands did not disqualify me there. The summit had invited
