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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