Maurice King’s marvellous medical book saved lives in Botswana

Maurice King. ‘He was a great man,’ writes Christine Evans. Photograph: Family handout

I 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.

PS, I became a surgeon.
Christine Evans
Llanarmon-yn-Ial, Denbighshire

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