Day in the OR

I failed to share the day I spent in the operating room. I'm sorry. So here it is! We, as crew, have the opportunity to spend a day in the operating rooms if we desire. A few weeks back on one of my days off I did this. I was able to observe three operations and it was cool to see what goes one in the OR, as well as see how the staff, all from different countries work together.
In the ward, we all work well together, but we all have our own patients and we don't often encounter conflict or a clash between two styles of nursing or in different ways of doing a nursing task. In the OR, the scrub nurse works so closely with the surgeon and the anesthesiologist. It was definitely a great thing to witness.

In the first operating room I visited, our general surgeon, from Uganda, was doing an inguinal hernia repair on a child. Something that I have been curious about since being here is why there are so many inguinal hernias, and why there are so many in the young boys as well. I don't have an answer, nor do I have any proof really if the incidence is more than it would be in the Western world. Once I find the answer, I will be sure to share. This was a boring surgery and almost complete by the time I went in. I watched as the surgeon isolated and removed the sac in which the hernia had protruded, as he finished the surgery and closed the patient.

The second operation I witnessed was performed by an ENT surgeon from South Africa. He was removing a few neurofibromas that had formed to the front, back and side of the patient's ear. That was a cool surgery to watch.

The third operation was a flap release on a patient who had previously had a flap created to make a top lip. The patient was a 12 year old girl who had had cancrum oris when she was between 1 and 2 years of age. Cancrum oris is a gangrenous disease that destroys tissue of the face, mouth and cheek. It occurs in third world countries, as it occurs where the predisposing factors of malnutrition, dehydration, poor oral hygiene, and poor sanitation exist. As a result of the disease, if one survives, there is usually significant facial destruction. This patient had a missing portion of her top lip.
I had met this girl at the Hope Center prior to her first surgery and she was so conscious of her missing lip, that she wanted to cover her mouth in all the pictures we took together.

A good picture of Usman, Abie, and me!

Three weeks prior, she had an Abbe flap surgery done, also known as a lip switch where the bottom lip is used to create a flap to the top and she remained that way for three weeks so that blood supply to the new top lip remained. This surgery was releasing the flap and creating two lips, an upper and a lower. Very very cool surgery to witness. The Max-fac surgeon here on board is an amazing gift to West Africa. He's from America, but has been doing surgeries in West Africa and with Mercy Ships for many many years. He is so talented in his ability to reconstruct faces and correct deformities. It truly is incredible! I saw her a few days after the surgery, and though she still has steristrips to the site, she has two beautiful lips, with which she will some day soon be able to smile with confidence!!

I was able to see how everyone worked well together. The scrub nurse not only provided the tools and supplies to the surgeon, but also acted as the surgeons assistant, often holding retractors in place and pulling portions of skin back, etc. In two of the operating room, the two nurses, the scrub and circulator both worked together at home. That was cool because they already had their own sort of system going on and were used to working with each other. The surgeons were all very good at working with others and were very patient with the others in the room. The anesthesiologists were all great! One was from the UK, another from Holland and the third from Germany.
I was not allowed to take pictures of the operations themselves, but here are some photos of the OR. Enjoy!!