Operating Room Set Up – A little DIY!

Rachael Cheechoo, Bonnie Cluney (Lay People) and Kathy Bonitz (Adult OR Nurse) count and wrap sets of surgical tools.

Walking into the OR to start surgery this morning, you never would have guessed that just yesterday these rooms were totally empty! The few pieces of equipment that were present when we arrived were scattered haphazardly – but today they were well organized and ready for our patients. 

The OR – before!

This transformation from empty room to functional OR was made possible by the hard working members of our Lay Team (Rachel, Bonnie, Yvonne, Amy, Natalie), with help from our OR nurses and nursing students – who spent the whole day in the wrapping room preparing instruments for sterilization. A wonderful local Ecuadorian nurse named Cathy even stayed all night to sterilize our equipment, without which none of today's surgeries would have been possible!

Josh Gallup, Yvonne Sawchyn, Bonnie Cluney, Rachael Cheechoo and Kathy Bonitz; hard at work!

Setting up an OR requires not only sterilizing and wrapping equipment, but also making ropes to secure bigger sets, locating sets, checking packing lists, organizing the wrapping tables and ensuring that all required equipment is organized and ready for use. There's an immense amount of work that goes into the mission before the first surgery even takes place, and every team member plays a crucial role in making that happen. 

The OR – after!