Hungarian doctor will perform surgery on Mars?

As long as astronauts only flew as far as the International Space Station (ISS), they could be brought back to Earth quickly if an illness or injury required urgent medical attention. With a more extended mission to the Moon, and especially to Mars, this is out of the question. Space surgery is once again enjoying its renaissance.

Forbes wrote about an interview with Dóra Babócs, a researcher at the University of Texas at Houston Medical Centre. She has been researching space medicine and surgery for years. Dóra has been offered a two-year position in Texas and left her home, Szeged. According to her, she is training in the clinic’s outstanding endovascular aortic surgery program.

She also gets to see how her mentor at one of the world’s leading vascular surgery centres, famous for its pioneering techniques, performs minimally intensive endovascular (minimally stressful for the patient, within the blood vessels) procedures for aortic diseases that require unique designs, complex surgical techniques and procedures. Vascular surgery, including endovascular surgery, is very advanced in the US. After two years, she would like to join a residency programme here.

Complications in space

Although a thorough screening of astronauts before a space mission can eliminate many diseases and reduce health risks, many new emerging diseases should be expected during a long-duration space mission. Dóra Babócs says:

During a space mission, there are at least fifty medical conditions that may require some kind of surgical expertise, these are the cases that my research team and I are trying to identify in our ongoing scientific literature review.

With current technology, a trip to Mars takes 2.5–3 years. Space is not suitable for life, it is an unusual environment, which increases the chances of new diseases and medical emergencies. This is due to the lack of gravity and the intense cosmic radiation that puts considerable pressure on the organs of the human body. Thus, a doctor has to have a plan for all imaginable cases. In addition, the unusual environment makes the procedure even harder. A doctor in space also has a limited selection of tools.

Hungarian doctor in space

In the long run, Dóra would like to work as a surgeon. She says:

I would like to master this unique vascular surgical technique that is used in certain areas of the US to help patients with specific aortic lesions who require complex endovascular surgery.

In addition to that, she would like to keep on researching the field of space surgery. She would like to make this discipline as advanced as possible. Thus, long-duration spaceflights could be safer for the astronauts and the spacecraft crew. She also applied for the Hunor Hungarian Astronaut Programme but did not pass the first selection round. However, NASA is still on her agenda. Dóra could not apply to the previous NASA programmes as she was not a US citizen. Now that she lives in the US and works at a US educational institution, she will have more opportunities. She said that she would like to go on a Moon mission.