A day in the OR

Observing surgeries...in OR 1 & 2 is the eye rooms. Here approximately 35 eye surgeries are done each day. Majority consisting of cataract removal. You can see the cataract on the screen to the right. Our eye surgeon - Dr. Glen is training local eye surgeons.

In OR 6 with Dr Tertius (South African plastic surgeon), I was able to see the reconstruction work on these fingers below.

Here he is drilling in K-wires to straighten the fingers (after an incision along the side to release them). For any OR nurses reading this, bear with my terminology :)

I also was able to see a large lipoma removed from this patients arm.

The removed benign product.

Enough stretched skin to close it, so no skin grafts needed.

In OR 3 & 4 our Maxillo-facial surgeons Dr. Gary & Dr. Tony were working. Here is Dr. Tony (an English surgeon) doing reconstructive work on a noma patient.
The surgical slate consisted of orthopedics and plastics (which are both finished), maxillo-facial & eyes (ongoing), VVF - vesicovaginal fistula's - just starting now for 6 weeks, followed by general surgery for 4 weeks to complete the outreach.

One of our recent cases was a lady with a large jaw tumor. The tumor hung down from her jaw till her chest with 2 tumor growing out of each side of the main tumor. Seeing that is shocking, it's hard to believe it even when it's right infront of you. Her case, involving 2 maxillofacial surgeons went from ~1:30pm till midnight. With her tumor being so vascular she bled large amounts during surgery. They ended up transfusing her 18units of blood! 14 units were from crew members and the last 4 units from the local hospital. Dr. Gary, one of our surgeons made an overhead announcement asking for prayers and blood donors :) The ship was drained of B+ blood, and unfortunately they were not able to complete her surgery. She is approx 22 weeks pregnant, so the last I heard, is they believe she will be able to complete her pregnancy without the tumor sufficating her and remove the remainder after. Her recovery was amazing! She was in ICU for one night, then 2 days later was walking down the hall to the next ward for the African worship drumming & singing time. So amazing! The African music time is almost a daily occurance, and it's so neat! I love it how they randomly break out into singing, dancing, and drumming at any time.