Beyond the door…

/in /by CAMTA

While the operating staff review the x-rays, Donna Brown (scrub nurse) prepares the tools. 

After the pre-operative procedures the patients are carried or wheeled into the surgical ward. It is restricted to people wearing appropriate footwear, scrubs and head covers. The ward is divided into multiple rooms where the surgeries are performed, where instruments and tools are sterilized or where patient recover from anesthesia.

In the operation rooms (OR), a cluster of people revolves around the patient. The first ones inside are the nurses who prepare the room and tools according to the needs of the surgery.

Andy Escalona (Respiratory Therapist) prepares the monitors while Dr.Scott Westberg (resident in Orthopaedics) and the others scrub in. 

Draping. 

The anesthetist and respiratory therapist then take care of administering general (children) and spinal (adults) anesthesia to the patient. While all this goes on in the OR, the surgeons have to “scrub-in” (to wash their hands and forearms very thoroughly) and to wear sterile gowns and gloves. By the time they are finished scrubbing and getting dressed, the anesthetist has administered the anesthetic medication and the patient is ready to be placed, cleaned and draped for the surgery.

The surgeries themselves vary according to the procedure. Despite their differences, one thing is common: it takes a lot of tools and many hands to complete all that has to be done. The OR nurses and the surgeons work closely together, in a very complicated waltz.

Everything revolves around the patient. 

Some children go into surgery with noticeable deformities of the legs that prevent them from standing or walking.

Before

Sebastian has cerebral palsy with reasonable motor function, but walked on the tip of his toes and had an adduction deformity in his hips. 

Going home

The paediatric surgeons released tendons in the hips and ankles. As soon as the procedure was done, Sebastian's legs were already falling into a more natural position.With casting, splinting and physiotherapy, we expect him to continually improve his ambulation.