April 10-11, 2016
By Sunday, our whole team arrived. Everyone and everything made it without any
significant issues! Some people arrived
in the morning and went right to work.
The ENT team gave 3 hours of lectures to the Ethiopian ENT
physicians. The Ortho team saw 56
patients in clinic and filled up the surgery schedule for the week and even
selected a few for the next trip. Some
of us went to a local church, some to the National museum, we picked up and
dropped off equipment at Cure Hospital. I even had time for a swim! Most of us had dinner at the Italian
restaurant at the hotel.
Monday was a clinic and OR day. The ortho team had 10 cases in conjunction
with the Cure orthopedic staff. Three
were specifically picked for the expertise of Dr. Scott and Dr. Duretti. Two were for children who had sustained
injuries to their arms during childbirth, and the third was for a teenager who
had an injury to her hand as an 8 year old and it was quite deformed. We had Ethiopian orthopedic residents, an
Ethiopian anesthesia resident, Ethiopian anesthesia students, a US anesthesia resident
and several UK medical students. The ENT
team saw 60 children and 17 adults in clinic, and scheduled 6 for surgery. The Audiologists did 50 audiograms and fit 15
hearing aids and several went to a local school to set up for hearing screening
exams for later in the week. I had a
chance to spend some time talking to one of the Ethiopian anesthesiologists
that I met previously.
Most of us went to a local Ethiopian restaurant for
dinner. We are quickly becoming a close
knit team and we are already getting so much done. Tomorrow – ENT and ortho in the OR, audiology
evaluations in a local school.
