"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

Saturday, December 11, 2010

C-arm Is Now Functional!

As many are aware, the image intensifier (C-arm) at Hopital Adventiste has been nonfunctional for at least 6 weeks.  For an orthopaedist, that's a major functional impediment and significantly narrows the types of cases that we can operate on.  
There have been numerous attempts by many individuals to bring this radiographic patient back to life all of which have proved fruitless...until Greg Bonner came on the scene.  Greg is a Certified Biomedical Electronics Engineer from Portland, Oregon and travelled to HAH a few days ago with his wife to tackle several pressing projects.  To make a long story short, Greg work diligently, even pulling a couple of all nighters, and finally got the beast up and running again.  Greg is a modest fellow and gave all credit to the Great Physician for solving the problem.  
The first case with the "new" C-arm was a young man with a T3 burst fracture that underwent pedicle screw fixation.  Although not technically impossible, it is much safer to perform this type of surgery under x-ray guidance.
Scott Nelson organizing instruments for the first case with revitalized C-arm
Terry and Scott instrumenting the spine
Image intensifier documenting pedicle screws in place

With respect to other imaging issues, we've also been blessed to have Jere Chrispens, an Information Technology Consultant from Yucaipa, California here for the past week.  He has been working diligently to solve the virus issues plaguing the portable digital x-ray unit we use in the clinic.
Jere on the phone with Fuji tech support

1 comment:

  1. I'm so happy to hear of the working xray machines! That's great news and an answer to many prayers. Thanks to the men who were able to come down and make them functional again!

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