"I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you
who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve" Albert Schweitzer

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

DuWayne Carlson, MD Trip Report

DuWayne Carlson is a graduate of the LLUSM and is an orthopaedic surgeon currently in private practice in Lincoln, Nebraska. 

It is hard to write a synopsis of an experience like this.  I have been on other mission trips doing orthopaedics that had a lot of need.  But for the most part, the patients on my other trips needed mainly their medical care.  In Haiti, the medical needs were only the tip of the iceberg.  The lack of food, lack of housing, and the grief over lost friends and/or loved ones almost eclipsed the medical needs at times. 

Personally, I grew in my willingness to accept that I am not in control of outcomes.  I may try and work towards a good outcome through God's strength and with prayerful consideration, but God still has a bigger picture to deal with.  He sometimes says, no.  You  can view my devotional on the web page www.findGodatNBR.org

Cases I saw were mostly open fractures (tibias usually), open wounds without fracture, and femur fractures.  I arrived in Haiti 9 days after the earthquake and did primary debridements on open fractures as late as 14 days after the earthquake.  Thankfully we only did 4 amputations the 11 days I operated at the hospital.  The remainder we attempted limb salvage on.  Early results were good with fasciocutaneous flap coverage on a couple, but who knows the ultimate results.  
We started operating on femur fractures at about 11 days after the earthquake.  One reason we delayed somewhat was that the SIGN nails were not available until then.  Kids got plated or externally fixed and adults got the SIGN nail though length was difficult to reestablish at nearly 2 weeks from injury.  Thankfully Scott had a technique of getting the length back that was not too difficult, but did involve a fair amount of stripping.  I think the stripping was worth the restoration of length (as long as they do not get infected).
I really do not have an organized presentation of the experience, but I hope this has helped a little.
DuWayne Carlson


In the photo above, Dr Scott Nelson and Dr DuWayne Carlson work simultaneously to insert an intramedullary nail in a fractured femur.

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