My week in the OR

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CASSIE!!!

I know today is only Thursday but I have completed my week in the OR, because we will be flying to Zanzibar tomorrow (Friday) morning. Yes, it is true that Zanzibar continues to have no power (going on 2 months now) and pumping water is just becoming an issue, but the hotels are still open and the planes are still flying there. So bottom line is we are GOING! We will return Monday and then spent the next week at a local orphanage assisting with daily cares of the children and assessing some of the children for illness/disease.

So my OR rotation was very short, but we also had very few surgeries which made it feel very long. It, like everything else here, definitely runs on African Time! When I arrive in the morning and ask what surgeries we have I am told I'm too eager, and that they don't know yet. When I ask at 10am they typically say, "we haven't heard" or "Not sure, but I think something is coming" Usually we don't know until the patient arrives and is practically laying on the surgery table. And yes they walk into the OR by themselves and get on the table and then (in rare case) are knocked out using god knows what. But it usually starts with laughing gas, and if you are lucky you get something IV. They do not have any sort of monitors on the patients unless they are intubated (which as you guessed they also rarely do) in which case that merely apply a pulse ox to the finger to measure the heart rate and the oxygen saturation.

Operating Table

Surgical Scrub Closet

Surgeries I have witnessed:
Hemorrhoidectomy (not to be graphic but I'm pretty sure this man will not be able to pass stool again in his life!!!)
C-section ( a cute little baby boy around 7 lbs was born! The c-section was elective!!! something we do share in common!)
T and A (removal of the tonsils and adenoids on a 3 year old boy)
Cataract Surgery (they actually do this while the pt is awake and cut/ use cautry/ replace the lens with a mad made one and close with stitches on the eye ball!)
Eye Infection on a 7 year old boy (he was intubated! but woke up in a lot of pain, not pain meds are given until post op once they wake and it is just Motrin or Tylenol if you are lucky)
Lypoma (fatty tissue deposit under the skin) I scrubbed in for this case, it was very basic and the procedure went well. But again only local numbing was used so there was no monitoring of the patient. When we were finished the patient (and 70ish year old female) was sweating a lot and wouldn't wake up. I won't go into everything that happened after this, as it is highly disappointing to see the lack of knowledge and understanding that surrounds these situations! Bottom line is we moved her to the woman's surgical ward and a few hours later she was more responsive but not "normal" as of when I left this afternoon.
Lypoma Surgery

Lastly 3 patients that I met on rounds Monday of this week have passed away! The sad reality of it all!

Until I return from ZANZIBAR!!!!!