In honor of our surgical post we thought we'd show a picture of us in scrubs with one of the translators we've been working with at CURE. This picture was not taken today but at CURE last week when we observed a cleft lip surgery there. The hospital was beautiful and the surgery was completed without any problems...it was a completely different experience than our later adventures in the OR...
Our day began with an unexpected tour as we searched throughout the hospital for exactly where we were supposed to be. Our tour guide was one of the medical students who has been translating and helping us out while we were here, but apparently he hadn't completed his surgical rotation yet he so wasn't exactly sure where we were supposed to go. We ended up running into a surigcal intern who also spoke some English and offered to show us around, so we were handed off. We continued to wander a bit, but part of me thinks he just wanted to practice his English for awhile. Apparently he thought Kristina needed to practice her French because she was forbidden from answering questions in English. After 45 minutes of our "tour" we met up with the medical students on the surgical rotation, and our surgical translator. They instructed us to change into scrubs and led us to a what looked like a break room because there were people hanging out and studying with both doors wide open. Apprently the modesty we've been exposed to since we arrived in Niger, doesn't extend to the hospital.
Fully dressed in scrubs and all our belongings in tow, we made our way across campus through the 107 degree heat. We arrived at the operating bloc and were instructed to put on our surgical masks and hats then bring all of bags and water bottles with us into the operating room. I think somethings got lost in translation because when we arrived we discovered that it was a thyroid surgery, not the orthopedic surgery we had been expecting. But we were polite and watched the surgeon's work for a little while. The surgical intern was very helpful and tried to position us so we could see what was going on in the surgical field but still be out of the way. We were reminded to steer clear of the sterile field. However, sterile field is kind of a loose term. First of all, the sheet that made up the floor of the sterile field, was stained. It may have been clean, but some how the gigantic stain didn't instill a whole lot of confidence in that fact. Second of all, while the surgeons used gloves, their dirty glove bags were discarded into the sterile field. Third, a cell phone rang during the surgery. Turns out, it belonged to the nurse who was retracting something, so our intern brought the phone to ear so she could chat. He was leaning over the sterile field but kept his balance by holding onto the IV pole. One thing I noticed during this surgery was the heart monitor. I have a general idea of what the heart rate should be kept at from watching other surgeries. I also know that when there is a flat line that's bad. Well, the entire surgery, the patient was flat lining complete with the alarm that goes off with this phenomenon. Granted, no one seemed to think this was a big deal, which meant that they had probably removed the leads, but then how would they know what her vital signs were and why wouldn't they turn off the monitors and the annoying beeeeeeeeeeeeep!?!
After awhile, we decided to ask if there was an orthopedic surgery we could observe. The response was, "No problem! It is next door. Go ahead and go in." So we walk into this surgery, unannounced, and stand in the corner, which actually isn't a bad viewing spot. All of a sudden, all eyes turn to us and ask, who are you, what do you want, how can I help you, including the patient!! Turns out the patient was awake, although obviously feeling no pain as the gaping hole in his leg and the broken bone within it lay exposed on the table and he didn't so much as look up to see who the strange white girls were that just entered the room. We tried to explain in our best franglais who we were, what we wanted and why we were there. Although I'm afraid it came out more like, "We are from America, therefore we can do whatever we want!" It was established that we could stay in the room to watch the end of the surgery. However, turns out we were wearing the wrong shoes. We had been told that closed toed shoes would be just fine to observe in, but while standing in the room we discovered that crocs were the only shoes allowed. I was a little confused because as I looked around the room, there was one man without shoes on and I know our translator had walked around the whole campus with his crocs on, how were they more clean than what we were wearing? But again, they let it slide and allowed us to stay. We watched as they closed the leg up but were both a little confused. His x-ray was up on the light board and the tibia was in 3 distinct pieces. The hole in his leg revealed the same thing, 3 distinct pieces of bone, held together by skin which was now being stitched shut in about six places to cover the whole length of his shin. There was no fixator, no pins or anything to align the bones so they would heal. The surgeon said something about infection as he finished his last stitch and proceeded to wrap the leg in gauze. There was no cast or splint that was added for support. Our translator asked if we would like to watch another surgery. We politely declined and found our way back to the safety of the PT "gym" (we'll recount this experience at a different time because this is already a really long post).
In conclusion, I now understand when asked if we were taking Betsy to National for her lumbar puncture there was a chorus of emphatic NO's!!! That's all for now! We'll try to get a couple more posts in (complete with pictures) before returning to the states in a couple days. There is just so much more to tell (our sheep roasting party, PT adventures at National, getting stuck at the sand dunes after dark, plus all the corresponding pictures) and so little time/internet connections/power to do it! Sai an gema!
Kristina and Michelle
P.S. Since no one tried to guess what we were standing next to on the last post, there are still five prizes left to claim! We won't reveal the answer until all the prizes have been given away ;)
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