Surgery Today

Chelsea, Angie and I went straight up to Major Theater (surgery) this morning. We changed our scrubs, put on the big rubber boots that you have to wear into the surgery rooms, hairnets and masks. We were a sight to see. We could pick whether we wanted to see an osteopathic surgery, a gynecological surgery, an ophthalmology surgery or a general surgery. We decided to sit in on an osteopathic surgery. After waiting for awhile for the doctors to get started, they brought the man in. They put him under anesthesia and put in a breathing tube. He was there because he had been walking on the side of the road and got hit by a matatu (the sketchy public transport vans).  Because he didn’t have enough money for the surgery, he waited for several weeks before scheduling this surgery. All of his external wounds had already healed. He had broken his left femur, left tibia and fibula, and right tibia and fibula. Just looking at his legs you could tell how bad the breaks were. The bones had already started healing together wrong by the time he got scheduled for surgery, so the surgeon had to break all of the bones again with a bone saw. The whole operation was really bloody and gory, for lack of better words. However, it was also fascinating to see. Again, I have lots of pictures if anyone wants to see them, but I won’t put them up there. It took 3 and a half hours for them the repair the femur alone. They ended up screwing a plate to the bone to help it heal correctly. I had never watched a surgery before, not here or back home, so it was a really interesting experience for me. I wasn’t sure I would be able to handle all of the blood and cutting, but it’s surprisingly easy (even just watching) to forget the context and just to focus in on the job at hand. It sounds so bad, but it makes things a lot easier if you sort of forget that you are working on a living, breathing person. I’m not sure if I’m explaining this correctly, but what I’m trying to say is that you sort of detach yourself from the patient and just focus on the situation. I was surprised at the tools they used. I’m not sure if it’s just here, or if it is in orthopedic surgeries everywhere, but the surgical tools honestly just looked a lot like shop tools. You had your specialty saw, your screwdriver, your screws, hammers, and plates that look very normal. They also used a lot of clamps and things that looked like wrenches. They started on the tibia and fibula repair, but we ended up leaving before they started that because it was close to the time when our driver was going to pick us up. We also went down to Minor for just a second and saw a guy whose hand was getting stitched up after an accident.

We just hung out by the pool here this afternoon, trying to get a tan (and sadly, possibly failing). It’s still shocking to me that the sun is stronger and hotter in South Dakota than it is here where we are so close to the equator.

Tonight, it’s time to pack for the safari! I’m getting really excited about that trip tomorrow. However, it is nearly impossible to pack for this as we have to fit everything for 5 days into a backpack. We also need to bring snacks and water. Needless to say, we will have to carefully pick what we need to pack. It should be really cool to see all of the animals. I’ll try to take as many pictures and videos as possible! Until Monday… J