AK-47: The surgeon

Throughout the week we are speaking to the people who trade in it, the people who carry it, and the people whose lives have been affected by it.

SURGEON, ZAMBIA

Dr Robert Mtonga is a trauma surgeon in Zambia. He explains what happens when a gunshot victim comes to the operating room.

" Trauma is a big chunk of the work here. In respect to gunshot injuries, the most important thing, obviously, is to keep them alive.

So we maintain the airway - make sure they are breathing; make sure the blood is circulating. These are the first things you look at, the first so-called "Golden Hour". Then we sort out the wounds.

THE AK-47

• Stands for Avtomat Kalashnikova model 1947
• Designed by Mikhail Kalashnikov while wounded in hospital - though he later said he wished he invented the lawnmower instead
• Produced in greater numbers than any other 20th-Century assault rifle
• Fires 600 rounds a minute
• Estimated 70-100m in the world
• The AK47 has spawned many derivatives, such as the Chinese-manufactured Type 56

AK-47: Iconic weapon

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You then have to locate the bullet - if necessary by doing an x-ray - and then you go in and try to remove it. If it's in a place that is inaccessible, you can leave it inside.

There was one guy who has 18 bullets in place. He was some sort of criminal, according to the police.

He's still alive - 10 years down the line, he is still here.

These things don't cause problems, because the way they are sitting, they are essentially like foreign bodies, but not causing problems.

Another case is a driver for one of the banks in Zambia. He has a bullet lodged in his right shoulder. It's not causing problems.

But there is also the mental damage. This driver still relives the memory of when he was attacked by thieves.

He has this post-traumatic stress, he wakes up in the night sweating, dreams and so on.

If someone has a spinal cord injury, they will stay for a long, long time in the hospital. Also the follow-up is extended. Some people have been followed up for years and years.

Now they have to be rehabilitated, they might be confined to a wheelchair, they might have difficulties in movement, difficulties in speech.

So on average you would say a few hours to anything up to 10 or more years. That is part of the hidden cost of guns.

Those that are severely injured tend to lose a lot of blood, and obviously they need replacement blood.

But with HIV/Aids in the city these days, one has to be very careful - especially for those cases that are urgent, where you need to do something immediately within the first golden hour.

Another aspect to this, in terms of the social impacts, is that money is coming from a limited pot. In fact, the Zambian budget is $18 per capita per year.

That means somebody who is injured from a bullet shot who needs $1,000 would take money out of 500 Zambians.

One bullet can wreck societies.

The message is very simple, guns are bad for health. "

AK-47 is broadcast on BBC World Service's World Today programme every day from 4 to 8 December, 2005, at 0205 GMT.