Sorry friends and family...I've been really bad this past month at keeping everyone updated. I've been living at Nkoaranga Hospital, where there is no internet, sio the time I have been able to spend online has been brief, and necessary to do research and check emails...pole.
So this past month has absolutely flown by. There are many details that I'd like to share, but for now I will be general...
First of all, our accommodations have been so fun. We have been staying at a guest house at the hospital with other volunteers. It's been so great to spend time with people from all over the world, interested in helping in lots of different ways. The orphanage draws some volunteers, as does the hospital in many capacities. I've been blessed to get to know people from Germany, London, Italy and the USA. It's also motivating and encouraging to spend time with these people...not to mention, the food is usually pretty good!
Now that I have to leave, I feel like I'm finally getting the hang of things at Nkoaranga Hospital. We have spent a lot of time getting to know the staff, how the hospital functions, and the necessary fixes that we need to do. It has also been invaluable to live with some volunteer medical students, who openly shine light on the needs of the hospital.
Some things that we've encountered:
-The most important devices in our hospital are: the pulse oximeter, blood pressure cuffs, oxygen concentrators, and lights. If nothing else, these are the most important!
- Oxygen concentrators! These machines can concentrate oxygen straight up from the air, which is what they will use here because oxygen tanks are scarce. We had access to an oxygen meter to check on the output of the oxygen. A lot of the operational oxygen concentrators in our hospital are running really low, from 30 to 60%...while idealy the output would be 90%+. Anyways, I've done what I can, and I can't seem to get it much higher. We need to find a better or more thorough way to improve these machines!
-Infant warming beds: a local hospital has designed these infant warming beds, which simply use light bulbs to warm this little box. These are not practical all of the time, because generally the baby will use a kangaroo method of being close to its mother to stay warm. But for situations like birth, or C section surgery, this could be useful. The problem that was with these machines was they came with these exposed foam mattresses....which is not practical for a drippy baby! We found an abandoned plastic adult mattress in one of the stoo's and used the material to tailor mattress covers for these little ones. We're hoping to introduce this and help them put these to use!
-The Storage Containers: there are 4 large storage containers on hospital grounds. Recently we decided it would be a good idea to check them out. We have found piles of old equipment, new equipement, smelly chemicals, lab stuff, crutches, walkers, IV poles, training dummies, ultrasound parts, etc. We find it interesting that this exists in such an unorganized way. We feel like a little more organization, and knowledge of what exists out here would be helpful to meet the needs of the hospital. For all they know, they have everything that they need there!
-Incomplete donations: it's been frustrating to see that some groups have come to donate hospital equipment, and haven't completed the process. For example, there is a perfectly good dental x-ray, that a group has put on the wall in the dental clinic. It didn't even turn on, so we decided to check it out. Upon opening it we realized that no one connected it to the power supply! On top of that, it's missing the exposure switch, which is only the most important button to run the device. We can't seem to find it anywhere. The other problem with the donations is that they are not necessarily meeting an actual need. For example, there are probably 20 nebulizers in storage, but our hospital doesn't use nebulizers!
-Billi-lights meet x-ray film viewer: We had a moment of resourcefulness. We discovered a set of Billi lights that was perfectly fine, except we had no way of getting UV bulbs for it...only fluorescent bulbs. So we converted this into an x-ray film viewer and installed it in a ward that was lacking this. We used the remaining Billi-light stand to hold another set of Billi-lights that operate at the proper wavelength. It's nice to be able to meet two needs with one stone....
-Sustainability: we realize that we're only here for one month, we're not going to be heros, but we do want to think about sustainable solutions. Lauren and I have designed some dust covers for some machines. It is so dusty here, and whenever you open a machine, dust is usually coating the electronics. We designed these dust covers as a sort of experiment. I'm not sure how practical it is for the staff to put on and take off a cover. As well, who knows how much improvement it will create. But if it is a good solution, perhaps this could be a good secondary project for next year.
-Teaching! Our knowledge here is helpful for a month, but the staff here will be here all the time. We spent a morning teaching about the power difference between different countries, and how this causes problems with the donated equipement. It was an interesting lesson, because it is so important here...the power here is 230V and 50Hz, whereas in Canada for example it's 120V and 60Hz. Transformers are needed for the equipment donated from North America. This lesson was interesting because a lot of staff actually were not aware of this. I also feel that teaching a critical way of approaching things is worth time in this culture.
This weekend we will have a conference and everyone will be back together. Our separate hospital groups will be presenting about our separate experiences. I'm looking forward to this weekend, which is concluded by over 24 hours of travel. I'll be home on Monday August 20th. :)
