Day 3

Today went better for the construction team. Mark and Larry repaired a broken water pipe and spigot. Glen and Bud finished some rewiring in the new operating room including connecting the outlets for 110 current from the backup generator. Mark and Larry spent much of the day trying to install lockers in what will be the medical team changing/locker room of the new operating theater.

Toward the end of the day, Bud figured out that one of the electrical transformers we brought to finish powering the new surgical lights was the wrong model. He was pretty down and frustrated. He was anxious that it might be months before the correct model could be sent and arrive and then be installed to make the new O.R. useable. When we got back to the mission house in the evening, Missionary Joan helped Bud use SKYPE (the internet phone system) to call the electrical supply house in Michigan where he had purchased the transformer. Bud was able to speak with the owner with whom he has worked for about 20 years. They talked through the problems, the owner said he needed to check on some of the transformer’s specs and that Bud should call back in half an hour. Bud did and the owner of the electrical supply house said he would try to get the right transformer shipped out by DHL (like FedEx, but operates in Africa, too) the next morning. Bud was almost relieved and optimistic about being able to finish the job. We hope the new, correct transformer will get here by next Thursday so it can be installed before we leave. The technology is incredibly helpful, but the incongruity is mind-boggling: we can carry on a conversation we people on the other side of the planet (literally) and download instruction manuals for equipment, but are struggling to meet the basic needs for water, sanitation, food, education and health care.

Dr. Kari and anesthetist Barb performed two big surgeries. The afternoon surgery lasted more than 3 hours. It was expected to be a difficult surgery beforehand. It got more difficult once surgery started because the equipment for the preferred anesthesia wasn’t working, the internal health issues were greater than could be determined from the outside examination and, as a result the prognosis less good. You could see the stress on the faces of the doctor and the rest of the team. It’s difficult encountering the limits of your ability to help, perhaps especially here when you know that the technology available at home would make helping easier and more probable.

Nurse Ann continued working with the local nurses and got a chance to help care for the very tiny premature baby (roughly 2 pounds) that is being kept in the incubator. The incubator that is keeping the baby alive is the same one Ray fixed last October when we were here. Ray was the other electrician on that trip accompanying Bud. Dr. Kari told him at the time that infants can die from cold when they can’t sustain their body temperature and that in fixing the warmer of the incubator he had probably saved more lives than the rest of the medical team. We’ve taken a picture of at least this one his repair job helped to save.