Day 6 - Six Days Shalt Thou Labor

Nice to have a relative rest day today.  That is for all of us except for Kevin who was essentially up all last night.  The little fellow with the gunshot wound took a turn for the worse and was transferred back down to the operating room for more intense monitoring.

Early this morning, Kevin, along with General Surgeon Tom and a couple of nurses attempted to transport the boy across town to the General Hospital where it was rumored there might be more sophisticated ICU facilities.  However, when they got there they realized that the "higher" level of care might indeed be a "lower" level of care than what they were ultimately providing.  Running low on supplemental oxygen, the team carried on to the Miami Field Hospital by the airport where they were able to pass the patient on to a truly higher level of intensive care.

The orthopaedic team only had three cases scheduled for the day so we were able to make fairly complete rounds on most of the patients under our care.

As orthopods, we tend to prefer cutting on patients as opposed to writing about them so seeing patients in the clinic and making rounds are our least favorite activities but we always get out spirits lifted when we get a chance to meet up with some of our favorite patients such as Chantelle pictured below with Zach.

Scott has been able to procure a couple of vacuum assisted closure (VAC) devices which have been a tremendous boon for wound management on the orthopaedic service. 

After rounds, we attended the morning church service and enjoyed some beautiful singing.  I'm sure that the non-Adventist visitors in the congregation could have done without the Ellen White homily that followed.

After the church service, the volunteers met in the break room and listened to another farewell tribute presented by the translators from the emergency room and the orthopaedic department.

After the morning services, we got back to work.  There is only one gurney in hospital which necessitates the occasional use of a stretcher to transport our patients to the operating room.

The case of the day was an unfortunate woman who had a huge sarcoma on her right thigh necessitating a hip disarticulation.  Prior to surgery, her family was required to go to the General Hospital downtown to obtain 3 units of blood in the case of excessive blood loss.  Sadly for this patient, she had her left lower extremity removed a few months ago for a similar sarcoma.