And on the third day....There was order at our surgical mission camp. The day began as others; in the darkness that comes before dawn. Yawning team members climbed aboard our shuttle cars and headed for a quick breakfast at the hospital before beginning a day filled with surgeries.
The best news of all was received early on, one of our patients who was very sick following their procedure had turned the corner and everyone was thrilled by the news!
It was such a smooth day with the usual improvisation for supplies, a few rolling power outages - you know, just another day at the office. I did however get to observe a most remarkable surgery in the plastics room where Dr. Leber took cartilage from a 19 year old young man's rib cage (near the sternum) and proceeded to carve it with the aid of a self-made template into an ear. The patient had only a floppy mass of poorly developed tissue and within 2 hours, he had what should heal into a normal shaped exterior ear. Truly remarkable.
In a nearby room Dr. Alvear performed a pull though procedure creating a rectum and an anus for a young 11 year old child girl who had a colostomy from birth due to an imperforate anus. The lives of these two patients are forever changed for the better, as are the hearts of those who where privileged to be a part of the healing.
To night, the local Rotary Club honored the team with some speeches and rose bouquets for each WSF member, along with another amazing Indian meal. We were short stay dinner guests and departed for the guest house to seek rest in our beds. Tomorrow promises to be a busy day.
So far away,
- Cheryl
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Monday, January 21, 2013
More photos from Monday
Thought you would want to see some more photos from yesterday.
General sites, and three of our anesthesia team, Bill Motter, Neelima Parikh, Diana Davidson doing wheat they do best
General sites, and three of our anesthesia team, Bill Motter, Neelima Parikh, Diana Davidson doing wheat they do best
Meet Aashay Shah from Allentown, PA
Aashay has been a true pleasure to get to know and work with here in Khambhat. He is a hard worker and jumps in where ever he can be of assistance. I asked home to share a bit about himself, and here is what he said:
Hello, my name is Aashay Shah. I am from Allentown, PA and attended The Pennsylvania State University with a B.S. in Health Policy and Administration and a concentration in pre-medicine. I have always had a strong interest in pursuing a career in health care as a physician and my chosen field of study allowed me to marry my interests between the clinical and administrative aspects of health care. When I was at Penn State, I was heavily involved with the Penn State Dance Marathon (THON) and helped fundraise nearly $40 million dollars to benefit pediatric cancer patients at the Hershey Medical Center. As a part of THON, I danced for 46 hours nonstop to raise awareness for the pediatric cancer patients and served on the Donor Alumni Relations committee as a Captain to facilitate the mail solicitation campaign. I look forward to attending medical school in the near future and being able to assist on future missions.
Hello, my name is Aashay Shah. I am from Allentown, PA and attended The Pennsylvania State University with a B.S. in Health Policy and Administration and a concentration in pre-medicine. I have always had a strong interest in pursuing a career in health care as a physician and my chosen field of study allowed me to marry my interests between the clinical and administrative aspects of health care. When I was at Penn State, I was heavily involved with the Penn State Dance Marathon (THON) and helped fundraise nearly $40 million dollars to benefit pediatric cancer patients at the Hershey Medical Center. As a part of THON, I danced for 46 hours nonstop to raise awareness for the pediatric cancer patients and served on the Donor Alumni Relations committee as a Captain to facilitate the mail solicitation campaign. I look forward to attending medical school in the near future and being able to assist on future missions.
Day Two - It Really is Monday
Several of us rose much before dawn for a quick trip to a bird sanctuary where we observed, with the watchful eye and education of Dave Leber, over 35 different species of varied colored, shaped and sized fowl. Dave was like a kid in a candy store and it is was a beautiful sunrise as we walked along the shores of a small lake. We moved to a different location where an observation tower was located, and out of nowhere the caretaker of the wetlands station appeared and offered to make us tea. We accepted and he built a fire and proceeded to brew this concoction in a large pot, over the open wood fire. It was quite good and actually tasted like nothing we had ever experienced before. Then, we sped back to the guest house to grab our gear and get to the hospital on time.
Today was another busy day of surgeries and teamwork. It never ceases to amaze me how so many people can come together and in less than 24 hours, function like a well oiled machine. Working together, never a cross word to each other, even when things don't go smoothly. And, just like at home, things don't always go as smoothly as we would like and we do have our share of equipment malfunctions, lack of adequate or appropriate supplies or unexpected patient reactions to anesthesia or surgical procedures. This evens extends to our ability to access the Internet to send out these blogs or to check in with family & friends at home. Even so, I would say that the spirit of the volunteers at World Surgical Foundation perseveres. We have seen this in our Indian hosts as well, as they have been extremely gracious in providing support to our team in so many ways. Even the OR staff are eager to get involved and work with us in any way possible.
While I write this another late evening comes to a close. We were treated to dinner again by our local hosts and then returned to our guest house, where we indulged in a "bucket shower", ever grateful for soap and hot water. It is time turn in, the clock approaches 11:00 pm in a few minutes. It has been a long day and 5:30 am comes as early here as is does at home on a workday.
While we hear the drone of the nightly chanting at a very nearby temple, now we lay ourselves down to sleep. Rest well team, it was another wonderful day to serve with you.
Love to our families and friends at home. Thank you for staying with us.
Gratefully,
-- Cheryl
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Surgical Camp Day One - Cambay Hospital / Khambhat, Gujarat,India
Sunday, January 20, 2013
What a difference some sleep makes. The noise of that busy street below faded to only an occasional horn beep, while very close by, there must have been a celebration of epic proportion. Music, singing, chanting, fireworks blasting until the wee hours. For me, sleep came effortlessly and was deep, for others the noise of the party interfered with their rest. Nonetheless, we were all up in the darkness around 6:00am to ready for the day. Breakfast was served as 6:30, another traditional local meal. It is all just delicious.
A little after 7:00 our controlled (I use that term loosely) chaos ensured as surgeons, anesthesia personnel, and nurses gathered supplies to stock their ORs to get their first case started on time.
The local staff preps all of our patients, meaning inserting an IV catheter and capping it off. Children are playing in the dirt courtyard waiting their turn and adults sit cross legged on blankets under the tree or in chairs lining the hallway. We are far from the pre-op we know at home. The patients are calm, and seemingly anything but nervous or fearful to 'go under the knife.' There are no hospital gowns or patient hair bonnets, but rather they enter the OR in their street clothes and what clothing needs to be pulled up or down, gets pulled and away we go. Even so, we are prepping with betadine and utilizing sterile technique in all cases as best we can.
Today's cases included young and old. There were hysterectomies, hernias, burn scar revisions, keloids, and ear reconstruction. Additionally, a share of hypospadias, nasal surgery, oral surgery and a hemangioma and more. Each specialty had plenty to do as they worked through the day and improvised when exactly the surgical supply they would have had at their fingertips at home was nowhere to be found or when momentary darkness came during one of the numerous rolling blackouts.
At 3:00 pm another group of locally pre-screened patients arrived for our team to have a look and make a final determination if their procedure could be done safely here. It was very heart breaking to see some that had to be turned away because it would be unsafe to perform the complicated surgery needed at this facility, in addition to needing more types of specialists on hand. It makes one so grateful to live in a country where, as difficult as it may be to work though the system, a patient has a much higher chance of receiving care.
TV reporters from VTV news broadcasters came to film a documentary about what we are doing here. In typical Indian fashion, they were extremely unobtrusive and thankful that we allowed the group to be filmed. I was sure to give them the blog URL as well as the WSF website address!
All in all, it was a successful day with many procedures being performed.
After work we where shuttled out to a large sandy area close to the seas (we could not see the sea) where over 10,000 people were flying kites, the close of a larger festival that occurs on January 14th which draws over 100,000 people from across the area flying kites like crazy. It was quite a site to behold, and needless to say we stuck out as not from these parts. Many people asked if they could take a picture with us, we were rock stars -- almost famous, grin... Our wonderful hosts had a local woman prepare dinner for us and we ate on the rooftop of our guest house. It was another fantastic evening and early to bed.
You are out there reading, aren't you?
Photos coming shortly.
What a difference some sleep makes. The noise of that busy street below faded to only an occasional horn beep, while very close by, there must have been a celebration of epic proportion. Music, singing, chanting, fireworks blasting until the wee hours. For me, sleep came effortlessly and was deep, for others the noise of the party interfered with their rest. Nonetheless, we were all up in the darkness around 6:00am to ready for the day. Breakfast was served as 6:30, another traditional local meal. It is all just delicious.
A little after 7:00 our controlled (I use that term loosely) chaos ensured as surgeons, anesthesia personnel, and nurses gathered supplies to stock their ORs to get their first case started on time.
The local staff preps all of our patients, meaning inserting an IV catheter and capping it off. Children are playing in the dirt courtyard waiting their turn and adults sit cross legged on blankets under the tree or in chairs lining the hallway. We are far from the pre-op we know at home. The patients are calm, and seemingly anything but nervous or fearful to 'go under the knife.' There are no hospital gowns or patient hair bonnets, but rather they enter the OR in their street clothes and what clothing needs to be pulled up or down, gets pulled and away we go. Even so, we are prepping with betadine and utilizing sterile technique in all cases as best we can.
Today's cases included young and old. There were hysterectomies, hernias, burn scar revisions, keloids, and ear reconstruction. Additionally, a share of hypospadias, nasal surgery, oral surgery and a hemangioma and more. Each specialty had plenty to do as they worked through the day and improvised when exactly the surgical supply they would have had at their fingertips at home was nowhere to be found or when momentary darkness came during one of the numerous rolling blackouts.
At 3:00 pm another group of locally pre-screened patients arrived for our team to have a look and make a final determination if their procedure could be done safely here. It was very heart breaking to see some that had to be turned away because it would be unsafe to perform the complicated surgery needed at this facility, in addition to needing more types of specialists on hand. It makes one so grateful to live in a country where, as difficult as it may be to work though the system, a patient has a much higher chance of receiving care.
TV reporters from VTV news broadcasters came to film a documentary about what we are doing here. In typical Indian fashion, they were extremely unobtrusive and thankful that we allowed the group to be filmed. I was sure to give them the blog URL as well as the WSF website address!
All in all, it was a successful day with many procedures being performed.
After work we where shuttled out to a large sandy area close to the seas (we could not see the sea) where over 10,000 people were flying kites, the close of a larger festival that occurs on January 14th which draws over 100,000 people from across the area flying kites like crazy. It was quite a site to behold, and needless to say we stuck out as not from these parts. Many people asked if they could take a picture with us, we were rock stars -- almost famous, grin... Our wonderful hosts had a local woman prepare dinner for us and we ate on the rooftop of our guest house. It was another fantastic evening and early to bed.
You are out there reading, aren't you?
Photos coming shortly.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)