An Englishman Goes Walking: Through the Alps to the Sea

Sports & Outdoors

Villar, Richard

Hiking & Camping

Vineyard Press

No stranger to operating in conflict-torn countries, Richard Villar, a former SAS Medical Officer and current war surgeon, volunteered to provide medical support in Central Gaza during the 2024 invasion. In Gaza Medic, he offers a gripping and harrowing first-hand account of his experiences working in the war zone, where he faced his most daunting challenges yet. After travelling overland from Cairo across the Sinai Peninsula, Villar found himself working in a 200-bed hospital overrun with 700 patients, including many women and children. Conditions were dire and there was nowhere safe in Gaza. The hospital was under constant threat from drones, missiles, naval shells, and machine&nbsp;gun fire, making it one of the most perilous environments imaginable. Despite these dangers, he and fellow medics performed complex surgeries on victims of bombings. Medicines were limited, equipment minimal, and basic necessities such as clean water and sufficient food were luxuries. Villar's moving account transcends the politics of war to focus on the raw, often brutal, realities faced by medical professionals in conflict zones. Each day brought more mass casualties, with a healthcare system on the brink of collapse and the population facing decimation. Gaza Medic is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the true impact of the Israel/Palestine conflict on individuals and communities. Villar's narrative is a vivid reminder that courage can be found when there is chaos all around.

Gaza Medic: A War Surgeon's Story 2024

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

Pen and Sword Military

In this fast-paced narrative, ex-SAS surgeon Richard Villar provides ‘a very personal insight into the difficulties, dangers and occasional virtual impossibility of providing medical aid to disaster areas and war zones. He shares his remarkable experiences in the aftermath of three major earthquakes – Kashmir (2005), Java (2006) and Haiti (2010) – as well as in the Libyan civil war (2011). Readers are given a no-holds-barred introduction to a world which the vast majority will have only scant knowledge of. The author describes what happens on the ground before a full aid program swings into action. Arriving in a stricken area with the infrastructure destroyed, his small dedicated team can take nothing for granted; water, power, shelter and the rule of law are likely to be non-existent and disease and shortages of food and water ever present. They meet challenges that the rest of us can only imagine and are under intense pressure to help, comfort and sustain overwhelming numbers of trauma struck men, women and children whose worlds have been turned upside down. Winged Scalpel is not only a riveting read but highly instructional and informative. From his own point of view, the author’s experiences prove that ‘you can take a man out of the SAS, but you cannot take the SAS out of the man’.

Winged Scalpel

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Books by Villar, Richard