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.
Stay tuned for more updates to follow.