Yesterday I had dinner with a dear Ethiopian
anesthesiologist friend and her husband and children. It is such a joy to see my Ethiopian
colleagues growing professionally and doing so well! The mood around the city is good, and it was
nice to be out and about. Most of the
rest of the team had dinner together at the hotel.
We had a full and varied day today. I spent the day in the Cure OR helping
provide anesthesia care for 10 patients for orthopedic and plastic
surgery. Some of the orthopedic surgeons
are away this week at a conference, so it is a good week for our team to be here. Unfortunately it is a relatively common thing
for children to get burned by cooking stoves and fires here. Some of the burns are quite significant and
require extensive care and frequent visits to the OR. The other two members of the anesthesia team
visited two local government hospitals to give some lectures and tour and meet
with the local anesthesiologists.
The ENT surgeons were busy seeing patients in clinic at Cure
and a local government hospital. The
audiology team was busy seeing patients at Cure to support the ENT team and as
follow up from previous visits. We
scheduled surgery for this week and will have plenty to keep the team busy.
There were several routine types of patients but also several
with advanced severe disease such as tumors and infections. Although we are able to provide more
sophisticated care than is often available here, there are somethings that just
can’t be fully treated. We are working
with the local ENT residents and faculty, and it is good to be able to continue
to support and help them. There are
always some sad and sobering realities in this type of setting.
We’ll have dinner together tonight and prepare for ORs
tomorrow and a day at the School for the Deaf.
No comments:
Post a Comment