Hi,
I just arrived home from Bolivia! The mission was awesome. I thought a way to share my mission experience would be to give you a brief overview of the logistics of a mission in the entry and then begin sharing stories rather than go through each day. I am going to upload my photos tomorrow but I have some from our awesome photographer Steph to show you today.
Wednesday:
We arrived in Bolivia and began to plan out our activities and toys for the mission. Here is a video link form Ross, a guest on the mission. He wrote some of the information on screening below.
Patient Screening Thursday and Friday:
Here is the basic order of a child’s screening process:
Station 1: Child Life – fun stuff, stress reducing stuff, crayons, coloring, toys, student volunteers and child life professionals all creating a pleasing atmosphere for the children.
Station 2: Basic Patient History and creation of patient file-addresses, dates of birth, history of illness – all that stuff you fill out at the doctor’s office.
Station 3: Photos – These will be used to help identify the patient and becomes a part of the patient file. These people are called “PIT” for Patient Imaging Technician. They also take the shots before surgery begins and after surgery ends.
Station 4: Vitals – height, weight, blood pressure, respiration, temperature, and heart rate.
Station 5: Surgery Consult – the plastic surgeons decide if what they see is operable or not. Some cases were too intensive to be seen at this location and needed to be referred to local specialists.
For instance, one little girl came in with two marble-sized bumps on either side of her nose. Didn’t appear like too big a deal until the CT imagery revealed an out pouching of the dura (a tissue covering the brain that holds in cerebral spinal fluid) into the maxillary sinus. That’s a big deal and requires a neurosurgeon and an altogether different team than is assembled for an Operation Smile mission.
Operation Smile is doing such great work on so many levels. They set up working relationships with the local medical community and patients that cannot be seen are referred to the right people.
Station 6a: Pediatric and Anesthesiologist Consult – This stations decides if the patient is healthy enough for surgery. Things like a high fever or airway obstructions (like a stuffy nose, for instance) can remove a child as a candidate for surgery.
Station 6b: Blood Work – looking for anemia (lack of oxygen in the blood), diseases, etc.
Station 7: Dental Exam – dental exam. Cavities, teeth that need pulling and can be done while the patient is already sedated for surgery.
Station 8: Speech Therapist – evaluates speech difficulties and gives parents exercises to help their children speak without hindrance. A beautiful soul needs to communicate! A smile is the fastest form of communication I know of, but close on its heels are words.
“Station 9”: Medical Records – The patient’s medical file follows them from station to station. Each station records data in the chart for the other stations to consider. At the end of the day the medical records are recorded into an electronic format by the appropriately named Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) personnel. Before any surgery can begin, the medical records have to be in order.
Saturday: Patient Lists posted and Hospital Decoration
There were over 200 children screened but there’s only enough room to fit in about 125 surgeries: 25 per day over five days. And that’s running with six plastic surgeons (one of them is on rotation) out of two rooms, one room has three operating tables in it and the other has two.
All the people that have been screened show up to learn if they’ll get the surgery that will change their lives. Susana, the speech therapist stood on a chair and began to read names, one at a time. This was a joyful and also heartbreaking day to witness.
Sunday: Team Day
We played the name game and got to know everyone better before surgery week began. A big part of what makes missions happen is teamwork and communication so we used this day to get to know everyone.
Surgery Week: Monday through Friday
We woke up early and five operating tables operated at a time. Screening was still going on and it was a busy week. Patients came in the night before and then waited for surgery the next day. Around 25 patients were operated on each day.
· This is just a brief overview of the logistics of the mission I have tons of photos and stories to share as soon as I upload my photos.
· Thank you for all of your support and donations. The toys were awesome and the monetary donations allowed me to buy a ton of supplies to bring with me.
· I learned a ton of cute Spanish phrases. For example Chow Chow means bye bye.
· The kids and families were awesome. I cannot wait to share their stories and their pictures.
Thank You to everyone who supported me and gave donations. We were able to operate on around 120 patients and screen over 250 which was awesome. The blog domain is not allowing me to upload videos and some pictures but there will be more to come. Also the blog is putting white background on text and I have not figured out the cause and how to remove it so sorry about that.
-Rachael
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