DAY 4: July 30 2014; “And so it continues…”

It was a slower paced start to the day, only in terms of the volume of patients to be taken care of, but the work was just as significant, having several lengthy surgeries lined up for the day. Dr. Lieberman and Dr. Owusu started with their first patient, Enid, with what would turn out to be a six-hour surgery, to reconstruct her spine destroyed by Tuberculosis.

Enid’s spine, destroyed by TB.

Dr. Scharschmidt and Dr. Fisk also begin their case, Jovanis, a Hip arthroplasty.

The hours passed by unnoticed, morning quickly turning to afternoon as the various teams handle setback after setback…

Running back to yesterday's consult room to grab some CT requisitions for Dr. Lieberman, I was tracked down by the mother of Denise, a young girl whom we had seen on our walk through the wards and had sent for some x-rays on our first day. She tearfully described how she thought we would be back to the wards to see her daughter, waiting in vain only to find out that we had held our clinic the day before and that she had missed it. I pulled out my notepad and found Denise's name and the notes that I had scribbled down and agreed to talk to Dr. Lieberman on her behalf. A little while later, he looked at her X-Rays and came up with a plan, agreeing to see Denise the next day with tentative surgery scheduled for the next week. I communicated this to Denise’s mother and thanked her for her persistence. She continuously thanked me and reiterated what a great job the team had been doing and how grateful she was for our presence.

I walked back into the OR where Dr. Lieberman and his team were beginning their last case. As I walked back out into the OR hallways to observe the other ongoing cases, I was quickly recruited by Dr. Kerner who was working on Nadine, the same burn victim that she had been working on the first day. I helped her position Nadine as she cleaned and dressed her extensive burns, breaking a sweat in the arduous and lengthy process and taking a lesson in the importance of stamina from one of the local doctors that Dr. Kerner was working with.

After we transport Nadine back into the ICU, I headed back to Dr. Lieberman's operating theater. I was just in time to watch them conclude their last case, an anterior cervical discectomy and fusion while religiously singing in chorus to Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline”.    

Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion.

Next door, Dr. Scharschmidt's team also finished up their last patient, after diligently handling some unanticipated events with “old school” tactics.

‘Team Sparta’

Another crisis was averted quickly after retrieving our driver's lost phone number and we headed back to the hotel, arriving just after 10 pm; a 14-hour workday!

We concluded the day with another late dinner, and a lesson in capitalizing on one's strengths and also importantly learning to recognize one's limitations.

Quote of the day: Scharschmidt to Lieberman: ‘with the reflexes of a cat she caught the code brown,’ describing Dr. Fisk’s efforts to establish a sterile field.

Runner up quote: ‘Sister rose knows how much I love my biscuits and nuts’ – Dr. Lieberman

‘Skywalker keeping us honest’

“Gorlick to Owusu: Have you found the spine yet?’

‘TAP’: This ain’t Plano

‘If Lance can pass gas, I can take pictures’

‘Old School'