Lights out!

So another busy day, no Dr Nana, so running the Ortho Department by myself again, 5 cases which is alot here. One spine, 3 external fixators and clean out of osteomyelitis of leg bone on a 12 year old boy.

Grace came to visit the OR this after noon, she was pretty bored at home and wanted to see what I was doing. I had her take picture of me operating with the lights out as the power went off for 10 minutes or so to prove that I do at times have to operate in the dark.  I will let her tell you of her feeling about seeing the inside of the OR and clinic here. She didn't get sick, but I think she was pretty repulsed as I get sometime here becasue there is so much more chronic draining wounds, infection and just overall badness here.  The 12 year old boy who's entire tibia was involved with infection would have never got to that point in the states, but here, he didn't come to hospital until he had been treated for 12 months by "traditional medicine healers" which are very much still in business here.  Much different than she would see in JoMo.

Scrub Sink, 2 bars soap,(one blue/one brown) talc powder and brush that has been there since last year! Pretty amazing how low their surgical infection rate is, given the above.

I was amazed when I was thinking about the talent and work being done over here currently. At one time today we had a thoracotomy (open chest surgery) by Dr Brown (full time missionary surgeon with Navy roots), Mandibular tumor resection by Dr Koch (ENT Attending surgeon from John Hopkins) Some Urological case by Dr Whitmore (Urologist from Connecticut) and Spine decompression/fusion by yours truly... pretty good for little mission hospital in the mountains of Cameroon.

Had to show the xrays of the crooked femur from yesterday and the one that was already fixed, 5 osteotomies (cuts in the bone) to get it straight enough to shish-kabob a rod down it...crazy.