Surgery!

A surgical team from PA came to do some work at the Hospital for a week this winter.  I asked if I could come in and watch a surgery.  In Paramedic school, I never got to do a surgery rotation, so I wasn’t sure if I would be totally grossed out or not.  Jami watched the kids for two hours while I went into surgery.  The patient was a younger woman who was going to have her thyroid removed.  The anesthesiologist heard I was a Paramedic and asked me if I wanted to intubate.  Of course!  As they got equipment around, gave her oxygen and medications, I tried to tell her what was going on (my Creole doesn’t really include surgical terms yet L) and tell her that the surgeon was a really good doctor and would do a good job.  The last thing she said before she went to sleep was that she is a singer, so she didn’t want anything to happen to her voice.  Great confidence booster right before I was going to slide a tube between her vocal cords….

The anesthesiologist walked me through his technique of intubation, teaching me things I wish I would have learned a long time ago.  “Have you ever intubated before?” he asked.  “Not on a live person,” I said….  And it was really different.  I was used to people in cardiac arrest or close to it, and who have no muscle tone.  The first time I tried, she was fighting me a little since she wasn’t paralyzed with medications.  I stopped, and they increased her sedation, then we tried again.  This time I saw a great view of her cords.  After checking that it was in the right place (lungs, not stomach) and getting it secured, the surgeons came in to start surgery.  After having a prayer over the patient, they started surgery.

The docs were cool, explaining about what they were doing.  After a while, they asked me if I wanted to scrub in.  I was totally clueless about the proper way to wash my hands, and kept holding my hands the wrong direction, or drying them the wrong way. J  After getting into the sterile gown and gloves, I was able to get right up next to the patient, and see what was going on. 

The next day, I was up at the hospital again for something.  Sitting on a bench outside was a young woman.  I think I recognized her a few seconds after she recognized me.  It was the lady in surgery yesterday!  I couldn’t believe she had recognized me since the day before she had only seen me when my face was mostly covered in a mask, and my hair was in a net.  I went over, and she talked to me.  (Yay, I didn’t mess up her vocal cords J!)  She was talking to her family members beside her, and as best I could make out through words and gestures, she was telling them I had been in surgery, and tried to reassure her when she didn’t know what was being said by the people speaking English.  I told her I was happy she was doing good.  She said she was going home that afternoon!  That was totally cool.

Then the other day, we saw each other again up at the hospital.  She said she was doing good.  And when I glanced at her neck, there was only the thinnest little line of a scar there.  Wow, how awesome!  I don’t know what kind of health problems her thyroid had been causing, but I’m glad she could get this surgery done.  It makes me glad to know the hospital is here so that people can hopefully find relief from their suffering or problems, and also hopefully hear about the gospel of Jesus Christ while they are here!

Over the past few months, we’ve had some trouble having enough anesthesia providers to cover all the surgeries, especially when there is a work team here doing surgery.  If you know anyone who does anesthesia, send `em down to us J 

After being in surgery that day and knowing of our need, an idea started in my mind.   David and I talked about it, but I wasn’t really going to pursue it.  Then one day a message was sent out about our need for anesthesia and to pray for how that could be filled.  I talked to the medical director and we thought this may just work out….  With my background of Paramedic training, if I spend time training in surgery and reading anesthesia textbooks, I may be able to eventually provide anesthesia for surgeries on an on-call basis.  I was so completely excited…and scared! 

I bought some textbooks and have been reading through, and it’s been fun to learn.  The thought was to wait so Dr Lordy (the current anesthesiologist on staff) wouldn’t be the only anesthesia provider…so she wouldn’t be overwhelmed with working all the cases and trying to teach me too.  And we waited for someone who would speak English.  We had thought we had the answer…a CRNA with a doctorate in teaching who would stay and work for 3 months.  But her first week here, she fell and broke her wrist.  A few days later, she went home.  So finally it was decided I could start when an Ortho team from the States came, only to find out there was no CRNA coming on the team.  It didn’t matter, because Dr Tracy (a resident) would be coming and she knows English.  Well, she can’t come, so Dr Buela would be training me that first week.  She’s a resident in the same program as Dr Tracy, and she has pretty good English. 

I walked into the surgery area at 830 Monday morning to find out that Dr Buela just got on a bus from Port au Prince.  So, after all that waiting, I would be working with Dr Lordy after all.  Dr Lee introduced us and we walked into the first surgery room, waiting for an ortho case.   About a minute later, Dr Mario came in and said there was an emergent case of a preeclamptic patient, and he needed to do an emergency c-section.  We switched rooms and Dr Lordy started introducing me to that room’s equipment and medication, anesthesia machine and monitor.  She started another IV on the patient, then they had the patient sit up so she could do a spinal.  For a moment, we stopped work, and before starting surgery, a prayer was said. 

Through the week last week I went down each morning for a few hours to work with Dr Lordy and Dr Buela.  It has been a great experience.  I had no idea what to expect…and it has gone so much better than I thought it would.  It seems like all those hours of Creole lessons really did make a difference…word after word…eventually made it so I could understand what was being said to me in that surgery room!  The anesthesiologists were really patient and talked slowly in Creole so I could understand, and when I didn’t they tried explaining it differently.  I’m so happy to get back to the medical world and look forward to what’s ahead.  I ask for your prayers as we continue on this journey!