Tuesday, June 24th
Hamjambo Rafikis!
Today Michael, Katelyn, Karly, and I went to Bugando Medical Center again to see some more interesting neuro cases.
Our day started with watching Dr. Matt Johnson give a presentation to the doctors and residents on jugular foramen tumors and pineal tumors. We then went on rounds checking up on the cases he performed yesterday, and thankfully all of them were in excellent condition! We then pivoted to the surgical theater to watch Dr. Johnson perform a complex jugular foramen tumor excision biopsy. This was a long case lasting a little over three hours, and extreme caution was taken taking a biopsy due to the vascular nature of the tumor. While the incision was very small, we were able to watch along on a tv screen as Dr. Johnson used a microscope. Our next and final case was a laminectomy of C4-C6 to relieve spinal stenosis causing diffuse myelopathy. This case was much shorter and a group favorite was when Dr. Johnson pulled out the spinous processes with the lamina connected— which he likes to call a “lobster tail.” We then went back to the hotel to meet up with Maggie, Foster, and Julius and enjoy a beautiful sunset over Lake Victoria.
Hope Ministries main focus is on education. Today Dr. Johnson did an excellent presentation on different type of brain tumors. Great learning experience for the residents and US medical and nursing students.
Katelyn was able to get some clinic time with Dr. Gerald and was able to see the inside workings of Bugando. She was surprised to see how busy the hospital was, including the waiting rooms, surgical wards, and patient rooms. She was also able to see waiting times for each patient— with some waiting over 10 hours to be seen. She was appreciative of how smoothly (relatively) things run back in the states.
Karly was able to be a scrub nurse for a case involving a skull fracture of a ten year old boy hit by a motorcycle walking home from school. She was very impressed by how efficiently the operation went and how the entire team works as a whole unit to provide the best results. She said there was no power hierarchy between the staff on the case and everyone was treated with the same respect.
Michael was most impressed by the respect and attention the staff gives to Gayle. She spoke with them after our long day yesterday and they delivered— and then some. He noted how efficient things ran, especially the room turnover between cases, which was our main holdup yesterday.
I was excited to see the anatomy I’ve only learned in textbooks applied to real world situations. It was very cool to see the cranial nerves during the jugular foramen tumor excision, and the real world consequences of when things are not anatomically correct. It was interesting to see the tumor impinge on the nerves and the way the patient presented prior to the surgery.
-Drew
Hi everyone!
Today, Foster and I visited the Fonelisco orphanage. We spoke with the staff upon arrival and then toured the grounds, seeing the bedrooms, classroom, kitchen, garden, and dining room. Afterward, I taught the children about hand washing and dental hygiene, and Foster taught the staff about vital signs. With the presentations finished, Foster and I spent about four hours playing games with the kids, including soccer, duck-duck-goose, and hopscotch. For lunch, the kids had sardines, ugali, and spinach, while Foster and I had protein bars and water. After lunch, we played red light, green light and taught them tic-tac-toe, rock-paper-scissors-shoe, hot hands, and chopsticks.
Foster was impacted with all the staff and the amount of involvement that they had. She mentioned how it was reassuring to see all the staff members wanting to have the ability to care for the kids. Foster was pleased to see how everyone responded to her project and how everyone was willing to jump in and learn.
I really enjoyed seeing and being with the kids today. The joy that is constantly on their faces puts me in utter awe. They are all so incredibly happy despite their circumstance. They were always laughing, playing, and living in harmony together (most of the time). If one of the kids started crying, there was more than one friend there to help comfort them. They truly have developed their own little family and it was so fun to see what that looked like first hand.
-Maggie