Thinking out Loud: Tuesday, July 6, 2010

After breakfast of two bread rolls and tea, we packed and took those leaving to the dock(the med students and the South Africans). As everyone then went on outreach, Michelle, Daniel, the eye team, and I waited for a van to Santa Maria. The eye team was a team of doctors from the capital who offered to come perform free cataract surgery for the villagers. This is why it was part of our health screenings. If someone was found to have cataracts, we made sure they made it to Santa Maria for their surgery.

Some of the missionaries

Of course the children wanted in the pictures too!

Lovemore brushing his teeth in the lake

It was good to see Lily and Angie again! There was quite a big compound for the hospital. They actually have a functioning Operating Room! They do the best they can at keeping sterility! We didn’t have masks or hats on before entering the room. Their scrub-in station has no running water, just a pitcher of water at a sink with a bar of soap. But they had special shoes to wear in the OR and the green towels for sterile stations. All in all, one ant on the floor, sterility was pretty good.

Scrub-in Station. See the bar of soap on the right?

Operating Room

Getting our instructions about the surgeries

As for the surgery itself, I was a little grossed out. Needles, fluid, knives, tweezers stuck in the eyes. Cut some layers. Inject blue dye. Go in and pull the lens out and put a new one in. The lens is supposed to be clear. Some were thick yellow due to cataracts. After walking in and out of a few procedures I was okay. The doctor did 12 patients that afternoon. Us missionaries guided the patients between pre/post op and OR. We had to make sure proper documentation was made and that everyone took their meds, were fed dinner, and had a bed to sleep in at the hospital that night.