May 31st

May 31st

Yesterday evening I watched a pelvic fracture surgery. The hip had also dislocated and needed to be reduced. I scrubbed in on the second surgery which was a femur fracture, a little bellow the neck around the greater trochanter. We used a C-arm to take pictures of the nails the orthopedic surgeon drilled in the femur. We then placed screws in the three holes we drilled. I was able to place a screw in the femur fracture site as well as assist with the retractors. At the end of the surgery I did a couple sutures. I cant get over the rush I feel after a surgery I scrub in on. It is truly one of the best feelings in the world to open up a human being and fixing a fracture that has been causing them so much pain. The post operation X-rays looked very good all the screws where perfectly put in.

Today we traveled back to Arusha. The surgeons went back to the U.S. Some of the team remained and we will be leaving on Sunday.

Frank

What a week we have had at Bugando Hospital.  Praise God for you love, support in guidance.  Without you I could not do this.  There has been much sadness as I see many, many patients laying on the wards with horrible open fractures and wounds because they have no money.  I can’t even describe these feelings I have when witnessing this.  I continue to ask what costs they had, and my heart reached out to them and through Hope Ministries we paid for many of these sad situations that we saw.  I am afraid if I worked as a nurse in this hospital I would not make any money because I would end up paying for a lot of these poor people’s surgeries.

I had a meeting with the Clinic Director, Director of nursing and a doctor on some concerns I had.  They were very opened to hearing my ideas and I offered to work collaboratively with them to help achieve these goals.

You probably read about the donation of the fracture table that was shipped to Bugando Hospital in December.  Dr. Wheeler and I demonstrated to the some of the doctors how to use it.  We requested that they schedule a femur fracture on Thursday so that we could demonstrate how to use it along with the c-arm.  The entire group in the OR room were excited to see how this work, how it helps with correcting positioning the patients to assist with the correct alignment.  They took a picture to show the rest of the staff.  Praise God this is going to help so many patients.  Thanks to Dr. Dan Johnson and Yankton Hospital for this donation!

On Friday morning, Mark, Brian and I traveled to Bugando for our last day.  We first meet with all the ortho residents, ortho doctors and registrars.  We praised all of them for the great work they were doing and make suggestions on some changes they could possibly implement in the future.  They all were so gracious for our visit and they thanked me for caring and continuing to assist them with donating equipment, sponsoring residents, and all the education our doctors provide.  Our key focus at Hope Ministries is EDUCATION….it proves to be the best thing we can do for them.  This will make a lasting change and will serve many patients.  They thanked us for our patience and thanked me for my persistence to move them forward in their medical care and that I do it with a heart for their people.  These expressions of gratefulness warmed my heart and reinforced what we are doing here is so appreciated by these people and that we truly are making a change.  Praise God!!  Then Brian presented an educational session on shoulder procedures.  They have really enjoyed Brian’s teaching sessions because they do not know how to manage and treat shoulder conditions.  He is an awesome teacher and I thank him so much for the time and effort he put into these teaching sessions.  They all learned so much!!

Please pray for the team as some have left us to travel home and others as we have to say our goodbyes and finish our work here in Tanzania.

Mama Gayle