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Published: June 29th 2010
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Well, this last week was my 8th and final week of the CFHI program. Since it was my last week, I wanted to try and do the two things that I hadn't done yet, surgery and the mobile units to the streets. On Tuesday, Mary Beth and I checked in with the surgery doctor to see if there were any surgeries that day. Since there weren't, I went back to General Pediatrics and hung out there for the day. The doctor told us to come back tomorrow because there were four surgeries. We were pretty excited because the week before, two other people in our program saw a tumor removal, so we had are hopes set high. When we arrived on Wednesday, we met up with the surgeon and asked him what surgeries he had... 3 hernias and a descended testicles. We were pretty disappointed but excited anyways to experience it. After we both scrubbed in, we took our place next to the surgery table to watch. Here, they let you get pretty much as close as you want to the surgery without actually touching it, which would never be allowed in the states because of infection control. The first patient
was a little girl that had a hernia. It was a pretty simple procedure. Our surgery room was connected to another surgery room and since there were windows that allowed people to see into each of the rooms, we began watching the other room as they prepped a boy for surgery. As we were noticing that the boy already had a large scar on his head, a doctor saw us and came over to our room and invited us over to that surgery to watch. We asked him what the boy was there for, and he showed us the x-rays. The 2 year old boy was missing part of his skull on his left side and the surgeon was going to create this "artificial piece of helmet" and place it in the gap. When we asked the doctor why, he said it was due to child abuse. Ever since the boy was little, his father would repeatedly beat him and because of it, his skull suffered from compression and never really developed. The boy already suffers from so much brain damage. He can't talk, walk, eat, or see.
The surgeon began with cutting through the boy's scar and slowly
started cutting away the tissue in order to peel back the skin. When he finally got the skin back, he slowly started to clean away the tissue on the edges of the boy's skull in order to make a clean service for the artificial helmet piece. When that was finally accomplished, the doctor took the formula for the cement like helmet and has it slowly got harder, he was able to mold it into the shape of the gap in the skull. When it became solid, he perfected the artificial piece by cutting and sawing it perfectly into shape. Once he got the shape, he made small holes on the edges of the skull and small holes in the artificial piece and connected the two using stitches. After he secured it in place, he stitched back the boy's skin and was done! We were able to watch every part of the surgery and it was really crazy to see someone's brain exposed and pulsating. Hopefully, this will be one step towards a better life for the poor boy. Also, there are pictures of the surgery and they will be at the end of my series of pictures after the MRI
picture so in case you don't want to see them than don't go past the MRI picture.
During the head surgery, we were able to freely go back and forth to the other surgery room. So we were able to see the three hernias and the descended testicles. If by the age of 2 a boy's testicles have not descended, than they need surgery to descend them. The surgery was actually pretty simple. The doctor made an incision towards the boy's lower stomach area where the testicles are ascended, and then one more down where the testicles should be. Then he simply just found the testicles and pulled them through to their proper position. Being in surgery was definitely a great experience and one that I most likely will never be able to do in the states.
On my last day, I went on the mobile unit that goes to the streets of the city and treats the homeless, drug addicted, and the alcoholics. This was definitely an experience that I don't really want to repeat again haha. I have never smelled worse smells in my life! We mainly treated people that are homeless and living on the
streets with all kinds of different problems. The first girl thought she was having contractions so the doctor did a audio ultrasound on her. The second girl thought she was pregnant, so the doctor had her pee into a cup over a small trash can in the ambulance so that they could do a pregnancy test. Turns out she wasn't pregnant but the doctor told her she needed a blood test to be sure. The next two patients were homeless, heavily intoxicated and had really bad throat infections. For these patients, we gave them injections of antibiotics because you can't really trust these type of people to take their medication correctly. We had three other patients that came in complaining of injuries, but they were just very drunk. The doctor gave them injections of Vitamin B Complex to try and help restore their electrolytes. Lastly, one of the drunk guys we just treated brought in this other guy that was pretty much completely unresponsive. He obviously had a broken nose and there was old, dry blood plus new blood all over his face. He also had a big cut on his head. The doctor cleaned him up, bandaged his nose
Surgery #1
This little baby girl had a hernia that needed to be removed. and stitched up the cut in his head. Going to the streets to treat patients was very, very interesting. You never know what you are going to be presented with and you are dealing with patients that don't really listen to you and don't take care of themselves. I admire the doctor that I was with, because she finds a way to not let those things affect her, and she is taking care of people that don't normally have access to a clinic or hospital.
Overall, I have learned an immense amount of information about healthcare in general, the healthcare here in Bolivia, and the Bolivian culture. This program through Child Family Health International has been such a rewarding and amazing experience. I want to say thank you to all the wonderful doctors at Hospital del Nino that make this experience so amazing, especially Dr. Velasco, Dra. Salete, and Dra. Bocangel. Also, this program wouldn't be nearly as great without our wonderful coordinator Gonzalo Claure. Gonzalo was always there whenever we needed him and would do anything for us, so thank you! Finally, thank you to CFHI for making this experience possible and providing such an enriching education. I
honestly had an amazing time in Bolivia and I am ready to start my travels through Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil!!!!
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Momma
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Wow!
Your last week was incredible Kayce! I can't tell you how proud I am of your work and travels while in Bolivia - you really did take advantage of every opportunity the program offered and the sights available to experience on the weekends. I am glad Johaan has arrived and the two of you can continue your travels this next month, but personally I am counting the days until you get back to the states! Love you xxoo