Alum serves as sole facial plastic surgeon for war zone patients in Afghanistan
Carlos Ayala (right), an alumnus from the David Geffen School of Medicine, worked as an air force surgeon helping heal wounded soldiers in Afghanistan this summer.
By Neil Paik
Sept. 23, 2011 12:37 a.m.
In the desert heat of Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, Air Force Lt. Col. (Dr.) Carlos Ayala is on call 24 hours a day.
At any given moment, a soldier wounded in battle or a child scarred and disfigured by a bomb blast may be rushed into the Craig Joint Theater military hospital, seeking surgical treatment that may mean the difference between life and death. And one of the only physicians in the country with the ability to treat these patients is Ayala.
For three and a half months this summer, Ayala, a graduate of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, served as the only facial plastic surgeon in all of Afghanistan. For some patients, being treated by Ayala was the only chance of survival.
Patients came in with disfigured faces and bodies, the effects of improvised explosive devices and gunfire, Ayala said. At times, multiple surgeons would be working on the same patient, with Ayala treating the facial injuries and up to four others treating injuries in the abdomen and the extremities.
During those brief summer months, Ayala estimates he treated 200 patients, including American troops, coalition forces, Afghan nationals and children.
The experience was like nothing he had practiced as a physician in the United States, Ayala said. Treating children with gruesome and life-threatening injuries was heartbreaking.
“I’m faced with some severe injury and there’s a lot of emotion along with that injury because of its devastation or the fact that it’s a child,” he said. “I find that I just have to understand that this person is depending on me and … when you realize you’re the only one that can do something, you need to keep it together, and then you do it.”
The devastating injuries sustained in the war zone were so traumatic that no medical school or surgical training could have prepared him adequately enough to treat them, Ayala said. Instead, he said he had to rely on his instincts as a surgeon.
Ayala was born in Puerto Rico and raised in the Bronx before moving to California and serving as a nurse for the military. In 1995, he was accepted to the School of Medicine at UCLA and graduated with honors four years later.
While at UCLA, Ayala stood out among his peers and helped initiate Spanish classes for medical students during a time when there was little sensitivity about language barriers between patients and physicians, said Dr. Vicente Honrubia, a specialist in head and neck surgery at the UCLA Division of Otolaryngology and Ayala’s former mentor.
Ayala displayed strong leadership skills at UCLA, Honrubia said.
“He worked in my laboratory all the time and the people in the lab used to call him the captain,” Honrubia said.
Upon attaining his medical degree, Ayala chose to receive surgical training and was accepted to the otolaryngology program at Harvard Medical School.
Upon finishing his residency there, Ayala said he decided his newfound skills and knowledge should benefit the servicemen and women of the military.
While working at an Air Force base in Nevada, Ayala heard about the need for a facial plastic surgeon to serve U.S. troops in Afghanistan and decided to volunteer for the position.
“I’ve been in the military for a long time … it was just another challenge that I hadn’t faced,” he said. “I wanted to go and experience that level of trauma and complexity.”
The Craig Joint Theater Hospital, where American servicemen and women are treated, houses the highest level of professional medical care in Afghanistan, Ayala said.
In a country where medical care is much less advanced than in the United States and in many cases unavailable, Ayala and his peers are sometimes the only available experts in their respective fields.
Although the military hospital does not usually serve the general Afghani population, Ayala has helped facilitate a program with UCLA called Operation Medical Libraries, which transports brand new medical textbooks from the United States to Afghanistan.
Valerie Walker, the head of Operation Medical Libraries and director of the UCLA Medical Alumni Association, said the program is meant to help sustain long term medical education for Afghanistan and the other countries to which it provides textbooks.
“They get so many books that they’re able to give books to physicians who otherwise wouldn’t have them for their jobs,” she said. “The military … use them for training programs.”
But until long-term solutions are put in place, the best medical care for American troops and others near the Bagram district of Afghanistan can be found at the Craig Joint Theater military hospital.
For Ayala, who plans to return to Afghanistan next year, the biggest reward was having the opportunity to serve American troops in their time of need.
“It was excellent being there helping the soldiers that sacrifice their lives,” he said. “Being there for them and being able to somehow contribute to what they’re doing is really amazing.”
And according to Ayala’s old mentor, the troops are in good hands.
“He’s a people’s doctor … and such a great person,” Honrubia said. “I will put my health in his hands anytime.”
