 "North Korean doctors are expected to serve the people selflessly. Because of a shortage of X-ray machines, they often must use crude fluoroscopy machines that expose them to high levels of radiation; many older North Korean doctors now suffer from cataracts as a result. They not only donate their own blood, but also small bits of skin to provide grafts for burn victims ... with anesthesia in short supply, acupuncture would be used for simpler surgeries ... patients would be strapped to the operating table to prevent them from flailing about ... the right to 'universal free medical service ... to improve working people's health' was in fact written into the North Korean constitution."
Barbara Demick
"Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea", pages 106-107
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