Monday, December 4, 2017

December 3-4, 2017 Ethiopia

December 2017
The Healing the Children ENT team has arrived in Ethiopia! 
Our team consists of 4 ENT surgeons, 3 Audiologists, and OR nurse, our Executive Director, and me.  We have an Ethiopian Anesthesia resident joining us for our anesthesia teaching program, and a US anesthesia resident is here for the month also working at Cure and will be working along with us.  We hail from Philly and Pittsburgh, New Jersey, Delaware, Texas, Kansas City and Miami!  All of our travels were uneventful and everyone and everything arrived safely.
Sunday we relaxed, unpacked, picked up and moved equipment, did some touring, some of us went to church and generally enjoyed the 75 degree sunny weather. 
Monday was our first clinical and educational day.  The ENT and audiology teams saw patients at Cure.  Approximately 75 patient were evaluated in clinic, over 20 surgical procedures were scheduled for the week, 30 patients received audiology evaluations and 15 hearing aids were evaluated/distributed.  Cure is always a welcoming place to be and it was wonderful to see old friends. 
Two of our ENT surgeons also went to see patients at a local government hospital with the local ENT surgeons.
The anesthesia team conducted day 1 of a Pediatric Anesthesia refresher course developed jointly by the AAGBI (Association of Anesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland) and the WFSA (World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists).  This is designed as an intensive hands-on refresher course for low- income settings.  It is a well-organized course and is well received.  This course has only be given a few times in Ethiopia but is much needed.  There is a similar course for Obstetric Anesthesia which is being given in another part of Ethiopia this week.

We’ll enjoy some dinner and rest tonight.  Tomorrow – surgical cases at Cure, the audiologists will go to the School for the Deaf, and we’ll continue our pediatric anesthesia course.

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