Thursday, November 20, 2008

Standing.



This kid wasn't so sure about us-be we can't really blame him. After all, we cut open his chest! This is Jennifer, trying to gain some of his trust back.

He went for the high five!

Who are these clowns?

The ICU team!

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Video Tour

Hello everybody!

Here's a video blog of the LLU Heart Surgery Team! It's a walking tour of the Alexandria New University Hospital and you get to meet some of the team! Check it out.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Flat Tire!

Yesterday we got a flat tire!


So we walked instead.

Diary Entry #4

Incredible Invention

By
Dr. Mudit Mathur
PICU Intensivist

And

David Seymour
Respiratory Therapist


In Egypt, supplies can be difficult to obtain. One can be very spoiled in the U.S. with all that we have available. Due to cost, it seems that some supplies can be rare or completely unavailable to both hospitals and individuals. For example, areochambers are very expensive so there were none available. They can cost anywhere between 150-200 Egyptian pounds, more than one month’s salary.

An areochamber is used to enhance medication delivery from an inhaler. To create an aerochamber, we had to do some on-the-spot creative thinking.
We built one using an ambo bag mask, tape, and an empty plastic bottle along with a pair of scissors. The device however, does not need the mask to work. A hole was cut in the bottom of a 500 cc Ringers Lactate bottle for the inhaler port. Tape was placed on the cut plastic to create a good seal when the inhaler is inserted.


Tape was also placed over the top of the bottle with a single cut through the middle to create a makeshift valve.


Now you have it! A functional aerochamber that you don’t have to take out a loan for!

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Starting the Second Week

Despite his lost luggage, Dr. Mathur is hard at work in the ICU after arriving on Friday night. Thanks to hospital scrubs and LLUCH shirts, he’s good to go.

Wondering what Alexandria looks like outside the hospital? Here you go:

The harbor at Alexandria.



It’s all smiles knowing that this baby is doing well. After Sam helped teach the mother how to care for her daughter, the baby will be able to go home tomorrow.

On another note, the Air France strike will prolong the trip. Dr. Hasaniya is still in New York. He was scheduled to arrive today to perform surgery tomorrow, however, his flight was unexpectedly canceled because of the strike. He will now arrive tomorrow. No need to worry, the Heart Team is prolonging their work an extra day to make sure all the children scheduled for their surgeries will still take place. What a team….

Cairo Trip


The Egyptian Heart Team treated us to a trip to Cairo on Saturday. But we had to leave some of the our crew behind to keep an eye on the heart patients. Jennifer, Sam, Sabrina, and Dr. Mather deserve an extra pat on the back. Thanks guys.

First stop was the bathrooms. Not a bad view, huh?


They're serious about their tourism in Cairo.




"Hi!"

This is Penny, she's the new arrival taking Stan's spot as the anesthesiologist.


You can ride a donkey from the Sphinx to the Pyramids, but we rode the bus.


The Sphinx!

A school of orphan boys were also visiting the Sphinx. None of them needed heart surgery.


Mark is already adjusting to local traditions.



The Nile.





A Whirling Dervish.


Cairo at night.

Getting a little tired, but we're doing alright.


This is Sam. he's working toward the tail end of a 12 night shift.


He was doing chest therapy on this patient all night long.


This is Madeline without her mask on-it's pretty rare to find her without it. She's a surgical assistant and has spent about 13 hours in the operating room each day. That's a really, really long time.


But it really pays off.






These girl was so close to death just a few hours before-it's so good to see her on her feet.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Getting better!


So far, all of the patients are doing well! We've been able to send six kids home. The little guy above contracted a bit of an infection-things aren't so clean around here, but thanks to the night shift's dedication and expertise, today he's up and walking!


And I think this little girl needs a new eyeglass prescription.

Actually, those glasses are toys from the hospital. Thanks again to all those responsible for cheering up the kids after surgery. Things can get a little dismal when they're feeling bad-it's been really nice to have something to hand out. Some of the kids are too young to understand why this is happening to them, so it's nice to have a peace offering.


And this is respiratory therapist Dave-or Super Dave. All day long he's running back and forth from the ICU to the OR. Getting blood/gas readings and making sure all of the patients can breath. Right here he's giving a few pointers to an Egyptian nurse. It's so important that we try to teach them what we know. When we leave, hopefully they'll be able to do some pediatric heart cases on their own.


Our newest addition-she's another tetrology case, so she has quite a bit to recover from tonight. But she's in good hands-Dr. Abd-Allah and the ICU team is ready for just about anything.


Over the past few days, the average amount of sleep has been 4.5 hours. There are some real heros on this trip.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Diary entry #3

By Jerry Daly
Director
Office of International Affairs


Our involvement with Alexandria University began three years ago when the mother of one of the Anesthesiologists at LLU visited our University. She worked in the School of Medicine at Alexandria University for Ibrahim Khadragi, MD the head of the cardio thoracic program there. She saw daily the needs of the children in Alexandria who require surgery to repair congenital defects. She came to Richard Hart, MD along with her son Ihab Dorotta—a medical graduate from Alexandria University and Abd-allah Shamel also from LLU to inquire about a heart team visiting Egypt to help. It took nearly a year to for the logistics to be in place and the first step was for the Egyptian team to visit LLU which they did in summer of 2006.


Eight members—surgeons, anesthesiologists, perfusionists, nurses and others observed at LLU to learn how we manage complex congenital heart defects in young children and babies. There was an immediate bonding between the two groups who worked together for nearly two months. The friendships that started that summer continue today.


It took almost another year for enough funds to be raised (largely from the Egyptian community in the United States) for LLU’s team to visit Alexandria University. On November 6th the team left LLU to initiate a 2 week visit to Alexandria where hopefully 20 to 25 young children and babies will have surgery and many more will screened and diagnosed. This trip is under the leadership of Leonard Bailey, MD and like most of these experiences others contribute along the way to its success. There are the administrators in each University who support these efforts in spite of financial pressures at home. These include Ruthita Fike, the CEO of LLUMC and Zareh Sarafin the Senior VP of the LLUMC Children’s Hospital; the President of LLU, Richard Hart, MD; the nurse managers at LLUMC who struggle with providing coverage while their employees are away; the other departments who have sent employees to help—particularly Surgery, Anesthesiology, Pediatrics, Pediatric Cardiology, Respiratory and Perfusion. This experience is not easy for our colleagues in Egypt either. Dr. Khadragi and his team have worked tirelessly to see that every detail is attended to. It is not easy to manage the individual needs of some 15 guests for so long a period of time. But our friends have done so with grace and smiles…


I’ve often thought what motivates people to participate in these experiences. It is often done with some personal sacrifice and inconvenience. What I have noticed is there is a common thread that transcends culture, language, and even religion—that is the willingness and need to help others.

I saw it Sunday when the Cardiologists were screening children for possible surgery.
You only had to get a glance at the anguish on the face of the grandmother holding her 2 month old grandson struggling to breathe. Something obviously was terribly wrong. He looked ashen blue and every breath seemed his last. He was in failure and there was fear he would not survive for long.





Whether this baby receives surgery or not is not the point—there are so many in need it is overwhelming. The point is that everyone—Egyptian and American—have come together to try to build something that did not completely exist previously. Their motivation is simple. They are all trying to relieve human suffering and for taking the time and spending a little effort each one will be blessed beyond measure and for that they are to be commended.