Day 9: Week Two Begins!

A guest blog entry from Ananya and Caroline:

Today we set up camp in the old ICU, which is now empty and is being used as a storage area for old, broken equipment.  It was great to see that the new ICU, which was our work area last year, is now in use, after much petitioning on Carolyn’s and others parts.

Entering the old ICU which was fully functioning about 6 months ago.

This area has become another warehouse for broken equipment

With the help of our new maintenance friend Horacio, we began work on two incubators. We determined One  could not be fixed, as it is ancient, and had evidently been previously tampered with.  There were screws missing, things were put back together incorrectly, and parts of the circuit board has been detached and broken. The second incubator was successfully repaired, after much battery work and sodering by Mark and Ananya!  

Working hard.

Good work, team!

We were also given another ECG from the pediatric ICU and two monitors from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit to look at.  We are still working to determine exactly what is wrong with each, and plan to continue working on them tomorrow.  Unfortunately, poor Horacio got stuck in an elevator trying to bring us the equipment.  This, along with no working lights in the old ICU, exemplify the daily problems that the people of Roosevelt have to face. 

On a happy note, we visited Gastro to deliver and officially donate some pulse oximeters and a blood pressure cuff.  Our three favorite nurses were happy to see us and told us that both monitors and the endoscopes we worked on last week are officially working!  Together we worked with them to test the blood pressure monitor we saw last week.  It can now also be used. 

A monitor we fixed now in use.

Testing the Blood Pressure monitor we fixed, it worked!

Afterwards we got some delightful homemade popsicles from the food stand outside the hospital.  Everyone enjoyed the delicious mango.  For dinner we returned to La Chapinita for traditional guatemalan fare and Mark was finally able to get that Hard Rock Guatemala pen that he wanted  We look forward to another productive day tomorrow! 

Day 12: Our last day at Roosevelt

We have officially finished our last day at Roosevelt Hospital. After 10 full days working at the hospital our work for this rotation is complete. Our final day  in the hospital was just as full as any of the others, but in a different way.

The rows of hemodialysis machines found in the basement

            Our day started in the ICU organizing the equipment and sorting it into different rooms based on its final condition. Shortly after we finished up, Dr. Barnoya stopped by to take us on a tour of a part of the hospital we still hadn’t seen (and that I didn’t have the opportunity to visit last summer either). We first went into the basement where we ran into a hallway that was entirely filled with hemodialysis machines, none of which were in working condition. The current hemodialysis unit is one room and can only treat  up to 10 patients a day despite the surprisingly large amount of patient who come to Roosevelt requiring this treatment.  During out equipment inventory, the nurses working in this unit were especially expressive and insistent that they had absolutely no way of treating all their patients as a result of their lack of equipment and everyday we were asked at least once by different staff whether we were capable of repairing hemodialysis machines. Each day we regrettably responded the same way, admitting that these machines are truly out of our scope. Knowing just how desperate the need is for these machines made seeing this collection of about 15 hemodialysis machines even more frustrating. It was clear from the amount of dust that had accumulated that these machines haven’t been touched for some time.

Some insight into the complexity of a hemodialysis machine

            Down the hall from this makeshift warehouse was La Unidad de Oftalmología. Barnoya explained that this ophthalmology unit is separate from Roosevelt and therefore receives it’s own funding. Unlike Roosevelt, this unit has the ability to control exactly where to designate their funding and also has a technical maintenance staff trained to repair ophthalmology equipment. Regardless of these extra funds the unit still has equipment problems and on our tour we were sown a number of machines, chairs and lights that needed attention. This morning I received a list from the unit detailing exactly what their needs are. This list is indicative of the level of organization and proactive nature seen at the unit. It would be  more difficult, or at least require a lot more time and energy to receive the same kind of lists from Roosevelt.

            Directly after our tour, a nurse showed up to lead us to the auditorium for a “public address.” We truly weren’t sure what this would entail and were definitely surprised when she lead us into an auditorium full of residents.  We were sent to the very front where Dr. Mejia was leading a lecture. He graciously introduced us all, described our work and thanked us in front of all of the residents. Despite being embarrassed it was great knowing our work was being recognized and it will benefit us in the future to have face recognition in the hospital. 

Gladys and nurses from the Hemodialysis unit

          We ended the “address” with a final donation of two additional pulse oximeters we had purchased through fundraising and a large bag of single-use electrodes. With some final handshakes and of course a couple pictures we returned to the ICU to be met with another surprise. We have only met one other volunteer at Roosevelt. Her name is Gladys and she works in the Hemodialysis unit – we mentioned our first meeting with her in a previous post. Gladys had made us 2 homemade apple tarts to thank us for our work and celebrate the past two weeks. During the half hour or so before she had to rush back to work we all sat around the new ICU. Different nurses stopped by and, as we handed out WashU apparel, letters, translated manuals and summaries of our work we received more thanks and well wishes than I could ever have imagined. The sentiments and thanks of the medical professionals at Roosevelt were heartfelt and will always serve as a reminder of why this work is important and worthwhile. I have never felt more welcomed or appreciated as I did by the staff at Roosevelt. They truly are the ones to thank. These nurses, therapists, residents and doctors work day in and day out in extremely difficult conditions, without proper rest or resources. They are truly lifesavers and heroes. It is an honor to work with them and I will continue to work to ensure WUGI is doing everything it can to continue to support and help the staff take care of Roosevelt Hospital and the countless patients that visit daily.

Using one of our donated pulse oximeters outside of the ER

Day 4: Celebrity Spotting

Today was our last day at Roosevelt Hospital this week. The past four days have truly flown by and, as Kelsey mentioned as we were leaving this afternoon, we’re going to miss the hospital until we return on Monday. 

Our day at the hospital was fairly different than the previous days. We, of course, continued working on equipment repair, today entirely focusing on ventilators.

We definitely hit some dead ends today but still managed to end the day declaring one more vent ready to use.

In the midst of our repairs, Dr. Barnoya stopped by to check-in with us. Dr. Barnoya is always extremely informative and gives us a different perspective than anyone else we’ve talked to. As part of our discussion covering our progress, future plans, and questions we discussed where exactly to donate the 5 portable finger-pulse oximeters we had purchased with the money we had raised through various WUGI fundraisers throughout the year. Dr. Barnoya told us all about a study being done in UNICAR (the cardiology center attached to Roosevelt) that would greatly benefit from pulse oximeters. This study’s goal is to improve doctors abilities to diagnose congenital heart disease in infants. 

Meeting Dr. Aldo Castañeda

He brought us directly to meet with Dr. Aldo Castañeda a world-renowned cardiac surgeon. My meeting with Dr. Castañeda was one of the highlights of last years trip and I am so glad the rest of the team got to meet him today. Castaneda is probably the celebrity I am proudest of meeting in my entire life. He has published over 400 scientific articles and 2 books and, in 1942, he successfully achieved the world’s first every heart-lung bypass surgery in a child. Now he is working at UNICAR in Guatemala City and is largely responsible what UNICAR is today. Even just walking into the doors of UNICAR it is evident it is better funded- a direct a result of Castaneda who also founded La Fundación Aldo Castaneda which has a general goal to create a sustainable system of pediatric cardiac care in Guatemala and Latin America. To learn more about his foundation visit: http://www.fundacionaldocastaneda.org/ver_noticias.php Or, if you’re interested in donating visit:

http://saveachildshearttoday.org/Friends_of_the_Aldo_Castaneda_Foundation/Home_page.html. Castaneda had never seen the type of oximeters we had brought and legitimately seemed amazed and kept repeating that absolutely every doctor should have one. We met with the director of the study and he too was excited about oximeters. We left, refreshed and rejuvenated after a pep talk by Castaneda who insisted the work we were doing was exactly what the hospital system needed and with a goal to fundraise to purchase more oximeters, for both infants and children in general.

It's incredible to know that our fundraising has paid off!

In future trips I am confident we will work with UNICAR on some of their trouble equipment such as their catheters and sterilization equipment.

We are looking forward to going and spending a day a la universidad del valle tomorrow.

"USA Chicas out"-Connie