After a busy travel weekend to get to Haiti and learn a little about the hospital, we finally started working Monday. Of course this was after the third introduction during devotions at the hospital! I started by looking at the EKG machine and cardiac monitoring machines that were still in boxes in storage! Aaaahhhhh! They work great, now I just get to teach the drs and nurses here how to use the machine properly. I will leave the interpretations to Dr Schock. My first EKG was on my interpreter to test the machine. He was terrified! At least until I reassured him that it would not hurt at all. Now he gets to explain this to all the patients! Then it was dressing changes on several patients. After a bit, some one said Dr Rudi wanted me in OR. Great, I have never been in OR one time. Crash course started with a basic incision and drainage, then a simple below the knee amputation!! Of course once we started, the leg was infected so bad the pus came squirting out so it was on to a above the knee!!!!!! Nothing like starting out in a big way! By the way, none of the cardiac monitors work in the OR, so all we can monitor with is BP and pulse/pulse oximetry. Hopefully I can get the new cardiac monitors up and running in the OR soon! We also found a defibrillator, and we might be able to put together a simple crash cart.
Tuesday started out with more dressing changes, but I was called several times to do some EKG’s. Haven’t done 1 normal EKG yet! All have been abnormal.
So glad you made it there safely! Praying for you all! Sounds like you are definitely helping the people there. Keep the posts coming as you are able!
ReplyDeleteKeep up the great work Eric. So exciting to be able to get new equipment up and running for them. My thoughts and prayers are with all of you.
ReplyDelete