One Day in the Life of CAMTA

Each morning we arrive at the hospital and change into our scrubs.

Those scrubs have lovingly been sorted by Charlotte Edgar (L) and Aline Young. When those two finish with scrubs then it's time to head for the “kitchen” and set-up for instrument washing.
Meanwhile Tom Shearer (L) and Barb Moreau get to work on the administrative things. Those include preparing the slates for the next day, informing the Tierra Nueva staff of our plans, ordering supplies and modifying our documents on the fly as staff see the need for changes. Tom has started preparing the spreadsheets for our “exit” inventory. We need to track the consumption to adjust our requirements each year.

There's always time to make a paper plane and play with a patient who's waiting for surgery. Damon has a touch of CP and an abnormality of his growth plates around the knee. When it's time for Damon's surgery, Dr. Shelley Scott interviews mom with the help of Craig Blanchard who is here from London, England to translate. He's actually a Fort Saskatchewan native who has started a banking career but want to “give back”.While Damon learns about his anesthetic, Eileen Guilfoyle shows student, Adam Petriw how to set up the instruments for the case. Careful sterile technique must be observed.

Now the surgery is underway. That's Marc Moreau on the left and Carlo Panaro in the middle. Carlo is a senior orthopedic resident from Edmonton and helping out is fourth year medical student Alex Rezansoff. Adam is in the background.

Across the hall, Heather Perl is setting up the acetabular reamers for the adult total hip replacement that is about to happen.

But first Maria must receive her spinal. Here's all the little items that Dr. Saifee Rashiq needs to provide spinal anesthesia for her surgery.

And now Saifee gives Maria her spinal. Eve Moreau translates and supports Maria. Glenn Day (Mr. Balloon Man) is in the background.And here's Drs. Ron Henderson and Paul Moreau waiting while that spinal get's placed. With the spinal in, Katrina Crnogorac RN gloves up Dr. Ron Henderson for the surgery.

Meanwhile in recovery room, Charlette Opper and Dorothy Latimer care for Jose, the previous adult patient. He received TWO hips — if both are bad it's easier to recover from both when the mobility is regained and the arthritic pain is eliminated.

I couldn't forget to show you this great shot of Melissa Mackell RN smiling! She's a shy one but I surprised her on coffee break while Katrina was setting up the adult theatre for the next case.

And of course there must be lots of photo taking! How else would this blog happen?

And with the day done — here's the view from the hotel, back in central Quito. Notice the cloud rolling in! It's been really rainy here every afternoon. Juan Jose, a native Quiteno tells us that the moderate high altitude climate of Quito now has more extremes of temperature and more rain.

Thanks, everybody for your interest in the blog. Tomorrow — we'll show and tell the second floor of the Tierra Neuva where all the post-operative work gets done!