Wednesday November 10, 2009




Tomorrow is our last day of surgery – 14 cases booked. Our recovery room is overflowing; some children on mattresses on the floor, other pre-operative patients have to find their own accommodation for the night, maybe camping on our doorstep, returning for surgery tomorrow morning.



We had two interesting cases arrive late in the day as we were finishing our slate. We decided to stay late and fit them in. One was a young woman from the border of Ethiopia and Sudan. She had traveled over 300 kms and had severe facial deformities. Though an interpreter we determined that her neighbor brought her hoping we could repair her deformity so could be traded to the brother of his potential bride. The second case was a small boy rushed in by his father with serious facial injuries caused by dog bites. After several hours of surgery they were able to save his eye and close his wounds. It is yet to be determined if the dog has rabies and there is no treatment available for rabies in Ethiopia. If we had not been on site, this child probably would not have received emergency plastic surgery - a lucky boy.



We have had many challenges running patient admission with medical records, a 3 bed operating room, recovery room and post-operative beds. Every day we have water and power outages. It has kept our quartermaster and assistant team leader busy being inventive to keep these systems functioning. One day the scrub team was scrubbing up out of a barrel and a bucket. Today, we ran our Oxygen and it is being delivered from Gondor about 3 hours away. We are constantly short of very basic supplies and drugs and forces us to be very innovative and resourceful. Despite this, these kids are little miracles. We have done good work – thanks to your help.



Tomorrow we do 14 operations. Thursday is clinic day when we do our post-op visits for all surgical patients and then we pack up. We hope to gather for final dinner late Thursday evening. We leave Friday morning for Addis Ababa. Some of us are returning home, others are going on the Tanzania for a 5 day safari.



We will post pictures and more thoughts when we return. Extremely slow internet access here has prohibited loading any pictures.







Tuesday November 9



We had a day off yesterday and the Rotaracts planned a variety of tours for us to choose from - a boat trip on Lake Tana to visit the island monasteries , a short trip down the Blue Nile , a hike to visit the Blue Falls (spectacular) and/or a trip to Gondar to see the ancient castles. It was a welcome relief for fresh air, sunshine and some beautiful scenery. Now we are rejuvenated and ready for tomorrow’s surgeries.



We have seen and assessed 107 patients ranging in age from 8 months to 72 years. As of the end of today, we completed 54 surgeries. We have an additional 24 surgeries slated over the next two days for a total of 79. Our numbers are fewer this trip but several of the surgeries have been long repairs of burn scars which take many hours to complete. We have had two children with malaria and one with possible typhoid which we treated prophylactically.



In rural Ethiopia, the women tend to do the work on the farms so it is often the fathers or uncles who bring the children to the clinic. They are great caregivers. One young father was helping all the children in our very crowded post op room.



Many children arrive in rags ,filthy dirty-the showers are not working so we try to do sponge baths before surgery and give them the children’s clothes we have brought with us .We have been giving some of the adults our own shirts to wear.



Our post-op patients often have no water, juice or food for their children as all their Birr was used to travel here, often very long distances. Thanks to your donations we are able to provide juice and water. Most of the babies don’t have diapers so they pee and poop on the floor which creates havoc for the other children and staff.



It is now 7:30 pm, many of our team are still with our patients. They often don’t get back to the hotel until 8 or 9 pm.



Some of your cash donations have gone to purchase the apple juice and water. One of the biggest hits has been the soccer balls that were purchased prior to the trip. Soccer is “the” national sport evidenced by the large crowd in a makeshift theatre across from our hotel, with rows of wooden benches and a sheet for a screen.



Every day there are “happy tears” from staff, patients and families. One 12 year old boy was so excited that he can now go to school! Long days but well worth the outcome – so rewarding to see young children, even toddlers see their new smile in the mirror with expressions of disbelief. The operative word here is KONJO (beautiful).



We are grateful to be able to make this happen. Your donations have changed the lives of 79 children, many families and all our staff.



AMESEGINALEHU - thank you in Amharic