Dr. Joe HIts The Ground Running With An Awesome Team
Posted
in Dr. Joe Miller
at 09:16AM on 04/22/2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
I received an email from Joe today. It's actually a copy of email correspondence he's had with the Texas doctor who asked him to bring a transition team to Pierre Payen, but that works for me.
What I can glean from in and around the medical conversation is that they jumped into Monday with a 15 hour day that included 5 operating room cases and a child with pneumonia. He mentions patients he met last January, "M. and S. were seen and are walking with walkers ... E. and L. were both here and their arms look great. We are working on the wrist drops," and adds, "The team is awesome and group dynamics are great. The physical therapists have really added to patient satisfaction." I recognize the patient "M"; last January he came to the hospital with a badly crushed ankle/foot and Joe told me the trauma docs said they thought there was only a 5% chance they could save his foot, but they would try. The Haitian doctors had cautioned them to NOT do amputations because people would refuse to come to Pierre Payen if they thought limbs would be amputated. Joe knew "M" was on the docket to be seen Monday; I can only imagine how pleased he was to see "M", and a thousand times more how happy "M" must be to have his foot.
During some down time, they are doing more cleaning and organizing. Sunday night, he said the OR was covered with inches of dust and dirt since it hasn't been used since the last trauma team left April 1. It is still very hot, very dry and very dusty. Highway 1, Haiti's main road which carries everything from trucks to cars to tap-taps (public transportation) to donkeys and dogs to people on foot, cuts through the middle of the hospital compound.
In the last part of Joe's email he writes, "The main auto clave broke and the one in the old OR leaves everything wet (not good per surgical tech and general surgeon). The anaesthesia machine broke. It must have a tube or fitting that broke because in the middle of a case we heard a loud ssssssssssss. I can tell the general area where it is coming from, but without tools to disassemble it, I cannot get to the exact area. If we had a technologist on a team, it might be helpful. Could fix, if possible, some equipment. Tommy is going to look at the scope equipment today. The PT's have continued to reorganize like things together in down time."
They will leave Port au Prince late Saturday afternoon and arrive in Omaha 22 hours later.
I received an email from Joe today. It's actually a copy of email correspondence he's had with the Texas doctor who asked him to bring a transition team to Pierre Payen, but that works for me.
What I can glean from in and around the medical conversation is that they jumped into Monday with a 15 hour day that included 5 operating room cases and a child with pneumonia. He mentions patients he met last January, "M. and S. were seen and are walking with walkers ... E. and L. were both here and their arms look great. We are working on the wrist drops," and adds, "The team is awesome and group dynamics are great. The physical therapists have really added to patient satisfaction." I recognize the patient "M"; last January he came to the hospital with a badly crushed ankle/foot and Joe told me the trauma docs said they thought there was only a 5% chance they could save his foot, but they would try. The Haitian doctors had cautioned them to NOT do amputations because people would refuse to come to Pierre Payen if they thought limbs would be amputated. Joe knew "M" was on the docket to be seen Monday; I can only imagine how pleased he was to see "M", and a thousand times more how happy "M" must be to have his foot.
During some down time, they are doing more cleaning and organizing. Sunday night, he said the OR was covered with inches of dust and dirt since it hasn't been used since the last trauma team left April 1. It is still very hot, very dry and very dusty. Highway 1, Haiti's main road which carries everything from trucks to cars to tap-taps (public transportation) to donkeys and dogs to people on foot, cuts through the middle of the hospital compound.
In the last part of Joe's email he writes, "The main auto clave broke and the one in the old OR leaves everything wet (not good per surgical tech and general surgeon). The anaesthesia machine broke. It must have a tube or fitting that broke because in the middle of a case we heard a loud ssssssssssss. I can tell the general area where it is coming from, but without tools to disassemble it, I cannot get to the exact area. If we had a technologist on a team, it might be helpful. Could fix, if possible, some equipment. Tommy is going to look at the scope equipment today. The PT's have continued to reorganize like things together in down time."
They will leave Port au Prince late Saturday afternoon and arrive in Omaha 22 hours later.
Comments
