Surgery

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The operating theatres here are as dirty as the rest of the hospital but thank goodness they still employ a sterile technique when performing operations, even if it means wiping your nose on the guy next to you whilst not using your hands! I´ll tell you what though, if a scrub nurse came for Australia and saw what they were doing with the sharps she would probably keel over and die. Situations include, passing scalpel blades to each other with their hands, leaving uncapped needles around and injecting into narrow cannulas without gloves (standard).

Anyway, my aim for this rotation was to see pathology I wouldn´t see back home. I've also learnt that the communal surgical slippers are a commodity and not a right. I have even fixed a broken one with tape so I could wear one, the other was too small and i drag my heel on the ground. Oh well, I guess it was better than one of the surgical interns, who i saw not wear shoes at all - "no slippers" he said casually.

The whole pain relief thing here is pretty lax as I have said in previous posts. An example was a man who was having a hydrocele drainage under local anaesthesia but was wincing every time the surgeon cut. I couldn't stay and watch.

I have assisted a few times which has been good to get involved in, even if I find it hard to understand what people are saying with their accents and behind masks!

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Photos

Assisting
Giant Surgeon

Surgery
I actually found some "slippers" to wear into theatre today (after a patient had finished with them)