The team comes home

Liz arrived home safely today, and the rest of the team came back to the US yesterday and today. For those who met them at the airport, it was evident that they were very tired but have a sense of accomplishment in what they were able to do to treat needy patients in Ethiopia. Plans are already being made for the next trip.

For now, we welcome them home and thank them for what they have done!!

posted by Marc

It is 1:45 am. We are at the airport getting ready to board our flight through Frankfurt to Philly. We are all exhausted. It has been a very busy week, but rewarding at the same time. Most of us spent the day at Cure hospital. We had a few equipment challenges, but we were able to provide much needed care for many patients.
We have all been asked when we are coming back. The needs for education and patient care are overwhelming. I can see some small improvement in certain areas since the last time we were here. The start of the Masters program for nurse anesthetists is by far the biggest potential for improvement that I have seen.
This whole experience has been extremely difficult work. When I was in Haiti, we said that we had never worked so hard and accomplished so little. This has been very similar.
I had difficulty posting pictures from Ethiopia, but I will post more from home. Thanks for reading about my adventures!

Today we are doing ENT surgery at Cure hospital. The hospital has been open for less than two years and is operated by Cure, a US foundation started by a pediatric orthopaedic surgeon. There is a US trained plastic surgeon, a US trained orthopaedic surgeon here and a Pakistani Anesthesiologist here who work for CURE. They have all worked in other cure hospitals around the world; I think there are ten in developing countries. There is one in the Dominican Republic that sent relief workers to Haiti immediately after the earthquake. This hospital is closest to the standards of care and practice that we are used to in the US.

It is Thursday evening, and hard to believe that we are leaving soon. It seems like we are just getting started and settled into a routine.
I was at Black Lion hospital today where we had ENT and urology surgery. Some of the patients we operated on have conditions that are extremely unusual in the US, or are quite advanced or need to be treated in a different way here than in the US. It is very difficult to see the extreme needs and only have limited ability to make an impact. We have done much good here this week, but it isn't even a drop in the bucket. Families are very grateful and that is immensely satisfying. We have done a lot towards education this week also, and we hope that there is some long term impact from these efforts.

Wednesday Pictures from Cure Hospital

Leslee Taylor-Godshalk, CRNA with two nurse anesthetist masters students.










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Dr. Glenn Isaacson showing others how to do a procedure.












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This is a patient who needs tubes in her ears prior to adoption.











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Scene of the street on the way to the Cure hospital.

Making a difference in children's lives

Today I was at Cure Hospital, where we did ENT surgery. We had a young child who is in the process of being adopted. She had ear disease and needed to be treated before she could be considered for adoption. She was in a very difficult family situation in a remote village about 12 hours from Addis Ababa, and now will hopefully have a chance at a better life.

We had a few patients with serious ear disease who now have been cured of long term ear problems. I saw a patient walking outside who was about eight years old. He had been burned as an infant and had a serious leg deformity as a result and was unable to walk. He has been treated by the orthopaedic and plastic surgeons at Cure, and is now walking.

Other members of our team were doing urology surgery at Black Lion and one was providing anesthesia education and training at Zewditu.

We are all feeling tired as the week progresses. We work hard during the day, stay up later than at home, and don't sleep as much and as well as at home. The seven hour time difference and the 8000 feet altitude probably don't help matters either!

There is great need everywhere. I have been asked several times today if I would consider coming for a longer time. We are already talking about our next trip.

The members of our Team

Here are the members of our team for this trip to Ethiopia (thanks to Ashlee N. Godshalk). Some of us have worked together in Philadelphia and others were on the team trip to Ethiopia last October.

Administrator
Desi Ferrell

Trip Medical Chief
Glenn Isaacson, MD, ENT

Surgeons
Mike Ritchie, MD, Urology
Michael Cohen, MD, Fellow in Pediatric ENT
Aaron Martin, MD, Resident in Urology

Doctor
Raquel Silhy, MD

Anesthesiology
Elizabeth Drum, MD, Anesthesiologist
Steve Serlin, MD, Anesthesiologist
Rosa Fe Gavigan, CRNA
Leslee Taylor-Godshalk, CRNA
Jane Pierson, CRNA
Carol Saladino, CRNA

OR Nursing
Sue Sulka, RN
Denice Jackson, RN
Cindy Lu Boucher, RN
Derek Ballou, RN

Recovery Nurses
Nancy Belluce, RN
JoAnn Epstein, RN

Medical Student
Ashlee N. Godshalk, Jefferson Medical College

Bio-Med Technician
Tommy Garcia

Philadelphia Inquirer Reporter
Harold Jackson

Working in the OR

Our team was busy today also. The urology team saw patients in the clinic area, and the ENT surgeons operated in two hospitals. The audiologist was at the School for the Deaf, and I was at the hospital where I was yesterday. The electricity and generator were out at Black Lion hospital in the middle of an OR case for about 30 minutes. We were prepared for short power outages, but hadn't really planned for one that long. There is only so much that can be done by flashlight! Everything worked out OK, but it was a stressful day for the team that was there.

We have all seen some very complicated and sick patients and many who would have gotten care for their conditions quite easily in the US. It is very hard to see so many patients with things that we know we could could better care for back home. But it makes us remember how important it is for us to do what we are doing.


Here I am helping two Ethiopian nurse anesthetists.












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Some of our surgeons working in the OR....












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A pretty tree outside our hotel reminds us of spring....

I spent the day at Zewditu Memorial Hospital which is a government hospital. It was originally started by Adventist missionaries but was in decline in the previous government after the Adventists left. It was closed for renovation for eight months and just re-opened two weeks ago. No one from our team had been there before, but I went because it was a place for the nurse anesthetist masters students to train. They need a Western trained anesthesiologist or nurse anesthetist teaching them in order to obtain credit for their clinical care. We had a 13 month old baby with a meningomyelocoele that had not been repaired. This is a condition in which some elements of the spinal cord are exposed outside of the body. In the US this would have been repaired at birth. The child has many developmental abnormalities and will not have a normal life. She was a high risk for infection based on recent rupture of the membranes. It is doubtful to me that she will even live very long because if her serious condition. Today she is showing signs of infection. It is the kind of surgical case that we just would not see in the US.

Our Urology doctors spent the day at Black Lion hospital operating on children who had had previous surgery but had complications and needed revision surgery. Our anesthesia teams an OR and recovery nurses were there also. In addition to providing care, team members also provided clinical teaching and lectures for nurses, residents and nurse anesthetists pursuing Masters degrees.

Monday was a busy day for our team. Our ENT surgeons saw patients at Cure hospital in the morning and then spent the afternoon at a school for deaf children. These children would normally be ostracized from society and so would their families. The school provides a much needed service to them but does not have anyone to actually care for their ears! We have an audiologist who is testing the hearing of many of them. This has not been done previously. Some patients may have conditions that will improve with surgery, and we will be able to give some hearing aids.

Starting our work

Here I am with a happy patient!













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Members of the team in the OR at Black Lion Hospital












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Street scenes in Addis













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Here I am demonstrating my electrical skills! Very important so that we can hook up our equipment!










posted by Marc

This morning we are on our way to Black Lion Hospital to see ENT patients and give lectures. We will also have tours of the OR and hospital for those who haven't been here before. Our Healing the Children group is close to 20 people.

Last night we had a reception and dinner at a local sports center. Healing the Children is parters with Gemini Health Care Systems which was founded by Dr. Ebba Ebba who is an Ethiopian born pediatrician now living in the Atlanta area. Gemini is committed to building the first free standing pediatric hospital in Ethiopia, and our work here is some of the beginning steps towards his goal. There were approximately 150 people at the dinner and reception.

Some of our medical equipment is still in customs at the airport, and all of it that was shipped is still in Belgium. Hopefully it will arrive by tomorrow! Because we didn't have all of our equipment, Saturday was a rest day. Some went to museums, others relaxed at the hotel. I walked through the city with some others. It was a little rainy but still warm and pleasant.

We arrived in Ethiopia with no problems. The flights were long - about 17 hours total. Some of our medical equipment was detained in customs, hopefully we will get it soon! We hope to get a good night's sleep tonight!

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Drs. Glenn Isaacson and Mike Cohen in the Philadelphia airport waiting for our flight.

Leaving for Ethiopia

I am heading to the airport to go to Ethiopia. It will take two long flights, almost a day to get there. After many weeks of planning and preparation, our team is looking forward to providing care to needy patients and helping several hospitals improve their level of care. There are only about 10 anesthesiologists in the entire country for a population of over 85 million. So there is a great deal of need.
Please check back to see how we are doing!
Liz

Ethiopia but still Haiti

I have been home now for almost three weeks - just a little longer than I was in Haiti. I still constantly think of my time in Haiti. I have images in my mind that will be there forever. Yesterday morning it was raining very heavily here, and there was thunder and lightening. If my house started to shake, I would have been sure it was an earthquake. I will never hear and feel thunder again the same way. A friend is now in Port au Prince and said that they had a big aftershock over the weekend and it was quite scary. We had lots of rain this weekend, and I was imagining what Haiti would be like with that much rain.

I am still in touch with many people that I went to Haiti with - by email, facebook and phone. For the first week and a half that I was home, I talked to some people several times a day to give them advice about supplies and equipment and personnel. It actually made me feel like I was still serving a purpose in Haiti. I find that my mind almost always ends up thinking about Haiti when I am not actively thinking or concentrating on something else.

It is hard to get real information about what is going on there. I have a few sites that I follow on facebook and twitter, but there is very little on the news. The hospital I was at will probably only continue to provide free care to the community until mid-April. They originally committed to three months, and that will soon be up. There are many discussions both here and there about what is next. I am very conscious of the continuing need for medical care as well as basic human needs.

In a few days, I will be heading to Ethiopia with Healing the Children, Greater Philadelphia to provide medical care and education for pediatric patients at Black Lion Hospital and Cure Hospital in Addis Ababa, the capital. I was there with several others in October and November of 2009 on a planning visit for this trip. We hope that this will just one of many trips in which we will provide services in pediatric ENT (ear, nose and throat) and urology. I was looking at some of my pictures from Ethiopia the other day while getting equipment together. There are many striking similarities between Ethiopia and Haiti. While Ethiopia hasn't just been hit by an earthquake, the need for medical care and education is just as great.

So, stay tuned! I hope to keep adding pictures and comments on my many adventures. You can follow me on facebook or email me: edrum19@yahoo.com

Thanks for reading!!

A far cry from US hospitals

An in-patient tent

Pre op waiting area

This was a broken bed which was outside of the building where the OR was. Every day lots of patients would just show up here waiting for surgery.

A Happy Patient

This is Schneider. He was in the hospital for many weeks with an infection in his heel. Everyday when we came by, he would ask me for my yellow flashlight that I had hanging on my bag. On the day he was going home, I couldn't resist giving it to him!