MCN Heathcare staff give back in a variety of ways during the year. One of our clinical staff recently travelled to Madagascar through the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. This group sends short term medical teams into a variety of countries to provide much needed care to rural, under-served areas. Each team is made up of 14 members from all over the US; pastors, nurses, pharmacists, and other medical and lay persons. We will be sharing her experiences with you over the next few weeks.
Surgery and Pharmacy
This week we are at Andranomadio, the Lutheran Hospital. The staff wear crocs into surgery. We watched them wash their crocs before entering the suite. Shoe covers are not available. There are two OR suites, both with windows. The rooms are clean and there is a multipurpose OR table. Gauze sponges are not disposable here. They are washed and sterilized in large stainless steel containers. The sterile field, including the instruments selected for the procedure is set up by a nurse. Instrument trays are not available here.
The day started with a hernia operation on a one month old, uneventful. Sevoflurane was administered by mask by an anesthesiologist in training (he has completed his training and waiting to take the certification test).
Next, we met a woman who looked like she was 9 months pregnant. It was cysts. The removal of her cyst was next. She received propofol, intubated, and the surgery was initiated. The cysts was huge, about 20 lbs. and the size of at least three bowling balls. When Dr. Harison attempted to lift the cyst, part of it ruptured and sprayed one of the Norwegian nursing students. It was interesting to watch the surgery performed by Dr. Harison and assisted by a nurse and no others at the bedside. (The anesthesiologist was getting blood for the patient).
The Pharmacy stock needed organization. We rearranged about half of the drugs. The pharmaceutical space is shared with storeroom supplies and it is small. Some things needed to be thrown out. Generic names and French brand names are on the boxes. It is tedious work but not a problem. The fun part was taking the trash to the incinerator. It looks like a huge chiminea. It is dark and as the trash is dropped in to the incinerator, the fire looks smothered but smoldering cinders can be seen at the base. Anyway, the fire is going, slowly the remainder of the trash is emptied into the fire and all of a sudden, there are small bursts; the bottles of mysterious medical liquids do not like the heat. The sparks over the incinerator were very pretty. It was a great day!
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