Brain Surgery for a Bear, and Other Animal Tales

Some people become famous within their own specialties by doing amazing things that the wider world knows nothing about. Dr. Romain Pizzi is a renowned wildlife veterinary surgeon. He's the expert they called to fly around the world to do brain surgery on a bear. That type of surgery had never been done on a bear before, and he'd be working in Laos, a country that doesn't even have an MRI. It takes infinite planning, confidence, and a skilled hand to even try such a thing. This video tells the story of the bear surgery, plus the time that Pizzi removed an eye from a seal and the time he did an appendectomy on an orangutan. Each surgery presents unique challenges that you wouldn't encounter with a human, but Pizzi works them out. Lucky for us, he also makes video recordings of his unusual operations for documentation and education. -via Digg