At the theatre...

Picture 1. Ready for the operating theatre! James, Courtney, Bryn, Dr. Morris.

Picture 2. The peritoneal sac from the huge hernia of a patient of Dr. Morris' this week.

          Our first week at the Saboba Medical Centre (SMC) has been exciting. The six of us have spread out to different sections: the OR (theatre), consulting, outpatient wound care, wards, lab, accounting, etc... And have tried to watch, learn, listen and be useful around the hospital.

          The resident doctor here is the Iowa-trained, Gustavus alumni, pediatric general surgeon with training in tropical medicine- Jean Young. She is always on call. Dr. Nick Morris, a general surgeon from Wyoming, is visiting with an intern, Bryn. These three have been very busy with keeping up with the patients’ needs in consulting, rounds, and surgery. In the "operating theatre", we have seen some interesting cases. Some large, complicated hernias, some tumors, a severe and messy gut perforation, and a large scrotal hydrocele. Courtney and Kendra have both scrubbed in on surgeries as the first assistant!

          Alex has become a lab expert. Bri and Alex ran the lab today single handedly this afternoon- Bri took the blood, Alex ran the tests (ex. Widal typhoid test, TB test, MPS (malaria), HIV, Hep B and C, HCG, hemoglobin, HCV, blood typing).

          Today we joined the Public Health Team from the SMC on an outreach to Sobiba- a small village made up of mud huts and concrete structures with lots of pigs, goats and chickens running around. Over 60 women with babies came to the clinic for a check-up: the babies were weighed and vaccinated. We helped with the vaccinations (ex. Measles, Polio, yellow fever, HIb) and distributing vitamin A.

          The Ghanaians we have met so far have been very friendly. Chatting with the hospital staff has been informative- we learn about their education system, social customs, government, and how the hospital works from their point of view.

          At night we play cards, listen to music, read, journal, and practice eour surgical and clinical skills on each other (drawing blood and suturing, mainly on Brian due to his massive veins).  We are looking forward to the coming weekend activities: soccer, market, cleaning the OR with bleach, and meeting people.

          In more important news, according to Brian, the Minnesota Timberwolves have still only won one game in the month of January.