Nurse Becky!

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Today began early with breakfast and taxi ride to the Public Hospital. We met Dr. Bill Irvin, Dr. Christine Wamhoff, and Laura LaBore, an American nurse/pilot who lives here in Georgetown. All three are the type of people you would expect to find volunteering for RAM: friendly, dedicated, and hard working. A nurse at the hospital hunted down some scrubs for me, and the first surgery began around 10 a.m. It lasted until noon. I made it through without getting sick or fainting and we grabbed a quick lunch at a little shop across the street.

The second surgery was considerably more interesting. They were doing a radical hysterectomy on a woman with cancer. Laura showed me how to “scrub in” and for an hour or so I actually got to help by holding retractors. Dr. Irvin told me to stick my hand inside and feel the patient’s rectal-vaginal cavity. I didn’t even know we had those! He said it would give me something to talk about at cocktail parties. He told me names for the different tissues and gross stuff and eventually Laura took over again. I thought it was pretty cool that he actually took the time to get me involved and give me a new experience. Due to it being a more difficult surgery and some problems with the equipment, we didn’t finish until 6 p.m.

Dr. Rangel, who had been assisting all day, drove us to one of Patrick DeGroot’s stores that is managed by Sheldon. It’s about 4 blocks from the Windjammer. Bill and Christine exchanged money and such and bought some groceries. They, along with Dr. Rangel (note: he is the driver) had a couple beers to celebrate the day’s work. He dropped me off at the hotel and then took Bill and Christine to the house they’re staying at.

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Comments

[Yoonster]

Behind the camera
Wow, who took the shoots in the operating room (including the alien one)? That must have been quite an experience! Like on tv!! haha