Another bright and early day of getting ourselves prepared for what surprises may come our way was upon us. Today I was super excited because they had oatmeal for breakfast. It really is the little things. We all congregate in the lobby and furiously check our phones and update our families because it is literally the only place where we can talk to the outside world. The hospital, my hotel room nothing. And I have to say I have the greatest parents in the world who even in Ethiopia text me a good morning, an I love you and well wishes for the day ahead. My parents are the best. I pretty much update them and my 5 closest friends each day to let them know how things are.
We hoped on our bus after breakfast and made way to the hospital. When we got there we rounded on all of the patients from the day before and they were doing beautifully. Our speech and swallow therapists are awesome and working with all of them so their outcomes can be the best possible. I am very much the chart queen and keep a very tight watch over making sure all the patients information and charting is done before they leave. The documentation is important for us and for tracking even after we leave.
Today I started with a unilateral cleft repair and worked alongside a facial plastics surgeon from Virginia. The Millard technique was used and the repair came out great. There are multiple techniques that have been published on cleft lips with many coming as modifications from the Millard. The cleft lip was very wide on this child and getting a good advancement and rotation without distorting the nasal
Architecture is tricky but always a fun surgery to tackle. It’s very much an art
The second was a palatoplasty for a cleft that was pretty straight forward and did very well. Our last case was our longest though and quite the story
Well there are two stories to it as we may know. One is that the child hit a hyena over his head and the hyena got mad, the second story was that he was bathing in holy water and was attacked. Either way 5 months ago a hyena bit his entire ear off sparing the lobe. The parents came in with the ear and begged for someone to just simply reattach it. I wish it were that simple but the ear would die. So the Residnet’s in Ethiopia banked the ear cartilage under the skin behind his ear so it could be salvaged for reconstruction. And that is exactly what we did. It took 5 hours, but we were able to save his cartilage and reconstruct a whole new ear which was amazing. He is going to be so happy. Halfway through the case the power went out, we worked under some generator lights and battery working headlamps and were the only ones let in the hospital OR. It was quite the romantic atmosphere operating under the moonlight with our music playing. At one point our entire team was in the room to see this amazing case.
We got back super late, the bus almost left without us and did threaten to not pick us up but our team leader From Ethiopia managed to get us some sort of ride back. We thought at one point we would be camping in the hospital. It’s not that safe to walk around after dark here and the cabs can be unreliable (and apparently dangerous as well) if you don’t know the drivers. But we got lucky, our bus drivers came and we got back safely. To pizza and beer nonetheless. Apparently work hours are pretty restricted to a certain time and people tend to go home before dark. It’s not like America and our work hours. The residents here get a lunch break to go home every day from 12-1:30. Getting lunch at all is pretty much a luxury for us Residnet’s in the states. I am slightly envious. Anyway, The bus drivers may quit and not pick us up tomorrow but I’ll guess we will find that out in the morning. OR organization
Teaching he anesthesists
PACU recovery
Teaching how to intubate effectively I
Our PACU
My mission mom
The superhero of our trip!Moonlight surgery
Hyena bite (cartilage is banked behind the ear)
After our reconstruction
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