The set backs grow...

So at first I thought that this trip was going to be a piece of cake for me. I had almost nothing to do with the adult hospital, nursing staff is pretty well educated and prepared. Things that need to be changed won't be changed due to the staff being so set in there ways. Those situations are delicate because you can't be pushy and be all "My way is better than your way". So I pretty much helped where possible and went exploring in all the spare time. Easy breezy! This afternoon I was brought to the 2nd hospitals pediatric ICU for the first time. We are supposed to interview patients on Saturday and start surgeries on Monday. Key word SUPPOSED to. Well I have my work cut out for me. I may have to pull some all nighters trying to get things together. The ped's ICU has nothing I need, I mean NOTHING. They have two vents. One is broken and is so old I wouldn't use it on a kid even if it worked, the other vent is probably older than I am but is still functional. I haven't tested it yet to make sure it doesn't blow out the kids lungs. That is all the ICU has. No supplies... nothing!! So I along with only ONE nurse have to sit down and pretty much build a pediatric ICU from the ground up. We have till Monday. I need to write out everything I need and send it to the appropriate people hopefully by tomorrow so they can send me supplies from Lima. If we get our crate (still in customs) I may find much of what I need, if we don't get it we may cancel the surgeries and focus on ICU growth and education. Thats why we are at this 2nd hospital... to help build an ICU, educate and hopefully do a few surgeries to teach. I must admit its a bit of a load but I'm here so I'll do what I can. The ICU here is brand new which is nice... just not set up.

Its been a long day! It started at 3:30am when the city's sirens started blaring. My group all opened the doors and were questioning what the sirens meant... Earthquake? Attack? Fire? Who knew!?!? We found out at breakfast over our morning cup of coca tea that it is a fire alarm calling the firemen into work. So we all freaked out and lost sleep over nothing! I spent the morning at the adult hospital and sat in on some consults with potential surgery candidates. I decided to stop sitting in the consults when one patient broke my heart. She is a single mother with 2 small children, she cannot afford surgery on her own and there is no one to care for her children when she dies meaning they'd probably end up in an orphanage. When she learned that she was a good candidate and that we'd fix her heart she broke down crying. I, along with a few others, were trying hard to not let her see the tears run. She couldn't thank us all enough. These surgeries that are somewhat common place for me are impossible here leading these people to certain death. For every person we save (hopefully the surgery saves her) there are thousands that die. The town I visit on Sunday is a 15 bed hospital that serves 40,000 people. How lucky are we in the States? Its not that they don't work hard or don't deserve the care, its just the way things are here. Its impossibly sad.