Greetings from Gitwe in the Southern Province of Rwanda!
All team members from various parts of the United States including Nebraska, Boston, Rochester, Michigan and Atlanta arrived in Gitwe after 2 full days of travel, including the last part of 4 hours on a van that navigated the dips and turns of the unpaved road to Gitwe from Kigali.
Shortly after arriving on Saturday evening, we worked late into Saturday night unpacking and setting up the suites. Within 4 hours the empty space was transformed into a fully functioning OR suite with 2 OR rooms, 1 recovery room and preoperative suite. Screening began after dinner; we saw over 50 patients, and selected over 30 suitable surgical candidates. Some of these patients had traveled over 100 kms, while others had waited over a year as we were unable to do their surgeries the previous year.
So far, we have successfully operated on 26 patients, with a day and quarter to go.
Urayeneza Gerard discusses the next few days of the trip with Dr. Sebelik.
Dr. Jagdish Dhingra, Dr. Merry Sebelik, Dr. Ameer Shah, Tim Glidden, CRNA, and Dr. John Simms screen patients for the days to follow.
Dr. Dhingra and Dr. Shah operating Day 1.
Dr. Dhingra marking a patient with the largest left sided goiter of the trip.
Preoperative photo
Post operative photo
Dr. Dhingra, Dr. Simms, and Dr. Sebelik operating on the large goiter.
Dr. Sebelik scanning vocal cords post-op day 1.
Bikorimana Aloys (interpreter), Dr. Sebelik, Kim Ferguson, CRNA, Dr. Shah, and Dr. Megan Chacon between hugs from the patients post-op day 1.
Stay tuned for more updates to follow.
