Las Mercedes Hospital, Children's Surgery Mission to Peru, January 20, 2009
Today is inauguration day in the United States and the team is running around the hospital, wards, operating and recovery rooms, break-out room and administrative offices trying to sneak a peak at this historic event on TV. Unfortunately, there is only one TV around and many of us couldn't see any of the inauguration but kept hearing about it from the excited Peruvians. The press is inundating us with questions about the election in the US and we gently remind them that we are here to help their children and would rather not talk politics. That didn't satisfy them and they kept asking what we thought about an African American being president. We replied that we were excited and hopeful and knew that our nation would continue to adhere to its democratic principals. When they insisted on pursuing the question further, we asked nurse Doris Osuorah, one of our three African team members, to talk about "coming to America" and the opportunity that it gave her in the field of citizenship and education. Her comments were moving, sensitive and we're sure are all over the TV stations in the north of Peru.
Another team member, nurse Patience Kankeh, our official team jogger, is originally from Ghana. Both Doris and Patience have been on CSI missions in Africa. Dr. Zipporah Njeri Gathuya, lead anesthesiologist, flew in from Kenya to be on this team. She is enjoying working with the other anesthesia team members Dr. Jason Pope, Dr. J. D. Stamler and CRNA Lynn Randall. Zipporah trained at Minneapolis Children's Hospital with Dr. Bruce Ferrara and at Gillette Children's Hospital with Dr. Dick Marnach, both CSI Board members. She was housed as a guest of Mary and Alex Batinich and looks forward to returning this spring for our CSI Passport to Smiles Gala to be held at the Millenium Hotel in Minneapolis on April 18th. Invitations are available by logging on to our web site at: http://www.childrenssurgeryintl.org/. That event is co-chaired by Jennifer Rivers and the Peru team's wonderful and ever efficient Lora Koppel. Please join us and hear more about our exciting work.
Not all team members are medical personnel. Logistics chair is George Steiner, a CSI Board member, whose job has taken a new twist since much of our freight didn't arrive. George knows where all of the pharmacias are as well as where one can get ice, water, supplies and diapers! We often hear, "George, could you please get me" (name anything) and it usually arrives. He is also responsible for feeding the team of more than thirty people every day at noon.
Youth representative Tyler Randall often helps run errands and takes pictures for our blog and scrapbooks. Tyler earned his way on the mission by preparing postop bags for patients as part of his Eagle Scout project. A recent graduate of Tartan High School in Maplewood, MN, Tyler is happy that he can share this experience with his dad Lynn and brother Brandon who is a nurse. The second youth representative is Francisco Diez who has been pressed into service each and every day because of his fluency in Spanish. Francisco's parents Claudia and Francisco are CSI volunteers and were born in Mexico, thus helping prepare young Francisco for medical missions such as this. Both young men have done us proud and are under the watchful eye of their youth advisor, Brandon Randall.
Bio-med tech Dustin Pitlick of Pierre, South Dakota has been kept extremely busy because of our special needs in the machinery and equipment department. He also fixes cameras, cell phones and is generally a most amiable team member. "Where's Dustin?" We hear that as often as "Where's George."
Another team member is videographer Masha Petrenko. Her short film resulting from this mission will be edited and presented at our Aprill 18 benefit. She has already taken many hours of footage and her gala film will only be about 7 minutes long, so we all look forward to some future films coming from this fascinating trip. Mary Batinich, another CSI Board member on the trip, is our blogger and Public Relations person on site. She is also doing some homework for possible future Peru sites for missions...................if only we could solve the freight and customs issues. We mentioned the talented Sally Lannin earlier and want to say a bit about her. At last spring's gala, Sally bought the "Mission Spot" and has been put to work taking pictures of our patients before and after surgery. Most of the photo postings on this blog are Sally's and we are all impressed with her ability to calm frightened patients and their parents. She is also a great communicator and hopefully, will post tomorrow's blog when Mary Batinich goes to Lima for a day.
Not all of our time is spent working even though our days and long and hot. Fortunately for us, our very affordable hotel has a swimming pool and many of us jump into it after a long hot day at Las Mercedes Hospital. On some evenings, we walk en mass to a local restaurant if we are not on duty or too tired to do so. Most full dinners cost less than $10 and are delicious. We are having fun trying local delicacies which often includes fish dishes as we are only about 20 miles from the Pacific Ocean. Night nurses Patricia Cabrera and Rachel Hovland miss out on some of that fun but take it all in stride and love their work with the children.
Tomorrow or the next day we'll post more about our amazing and gifted nursing staff. Their jobs are coordinated by Clinical Lead Lora Koppel and we'll tell some of their stories during the next few days. They are the aforementioned night nurses Patricia Cabrera and Rachel Hovland, OR nurses Clariace Witt, Mary Johnson and Barb Weimann, PACU or recovery room nurses Doris Osuorah and Emily Pope, ward nurses Patience Kankeh and Jan Martland and floater Katie Houle.
The entire team misses Dr. Hossein Aliabadi who was to have performed urological surgery but became ill on the way to Peru and had to return home. Get well Hossein and take comfort in the fact that your patients have been operated on by local surgeons who are very happy to be a part of this exciting mission to help their children.
That's all for now. Mary Batinich, Chiclayo. Peru
Another team member, nurse Patience Kankeh, our official team jogger, is originally from Ghana. Both Doris and Patience have been on CSI missions in Africa. Dr. Zipporah Njeri Gathuya, lead anesthesiologist, flew in from Kenya to be on this team. She is enjoying working with the other anesthesia team members Dr. Jason Pope, Dr. J. D. Stamler and CRNA Lynn Randall. Zipporah trained at Minneapolis Children's Hospital with Dr. Bruce Ferrara and at Gillette Children's Hospital with Dr. Dick Marnach, both CSI Board members. She was housed as a guest of Mary and Alex Batinich and looks forward to returning this spring for our CSI Passport to Smiles Gala to be held at the Millenium Hotel in Minneapolis on April 18th. Invitations are available by logging on to our web site at: http://www.childrenssurgeryintl.org/. That event is co-chaired by Jennifer Rivers and the Peru team's wonderful and ever efficient Lora Koppel. Please join us and hear more about our exciting work.
Not all team members are medical personnel. Logistics chair is George Steiner, a CSI Board member, whose job has taken a new twist since much of our freight didn't arrive. George knows where all of the pharmacias are as well as where one can get ice, water, supplies and diapers! We often hear, "George, could you please get me" (name anything) and it usually arrives. He is also responsible for feeding the team of more than thirty people every day at noon.
Youth representative Tyler Randall often helps run errands and takes pictures for our blog and scrapbooks. Tyler earned his way on the mission by preparing postop bags for patients as part of his Eagle Scout project. A recent graduate of Tartan High School in Maplewood, MN, Tyler is happy that he can share this experience with his dad Lynn and brother Brandon who is a nurse. The second youth representative is Francisco Diez who has been pressed into service each and every day because of his fluency in Spanish. Francisco's parents Claudia and Francisco are CSI volunteers and were born in Mexico, thus helping prepare young Francisco for medical missions such as this. Both young men have done us proud and are under the watchful eye of their youth advisor, Brandon Randall.
Bio-med tech Dustin Pitlick of Pierre, South Dakota has been kept extremely busy because of our special needs in the machinery and equipment department. He also fixes cameras, cell phones and is generally a most amiable team member. "Where's Dustin?" We hear that as often as "Where's George."
Another team member is videographer Masha Petrenko. Her short film resulting from this mission will be edited and presented at our Aprill 18 benefit. She has already taken many hours of footage and her gala film will only be about 7 minutes long, so we all look forward to some future films coming from this fascinating trip. Mary Batinich, another CSI Board member on the trip, is our blogger and Public Relations person on site. She is also doing some homework for possible future Peru sites for missions...................if only we could solve the freight and customs issues. We mentioned the talented Sally Lannin earlier and want to say a bit about her. At last spring's gala, Sally bought the "Mission Spot" and has been put to work taking pictures of our patients before and after surgery. Most of the photo postings on this blog are Sally's and we are all impressed with her ability to calm frightened patients and their parents. She is also a great communicator and hopefully, will post tomorrow's blog when Mary Batinich goes to Lima for a day.
Not all of our time is spent working even though our days and long and hot. Fortunately for us, our very affordable hotel has a swimming pool and many of us jump into it after a long hot day at Las Mercedes Hospital. On some evenings, we walk en mass to a local restaurant if we are not on duty or too tired to do so. Most full dinners cost less than $10 and are delicious. We are having fun trying local delicacies which often includes fish dishes as we are only about 20 miles from the Pacific Ocean. Night nurses Patricia Cabrera and Rachel Hovland miss out on some of that fun but take it all in stride and love their work with the children.
Tomorrow or the next day we'll post more about our amazing and gifted nursing staff. Their jobs are coordinated by Clinical Lead Lora Koppel and we'll tell some of their stories during the next few days. They are the aforementioned night nurses Patricia Cabrera and Rachel Hovland, OR nurses Clariace Witt, Mary Johnson and Barb Weimann, PACU or recovery room nurses Doris Osuorah and Emily Pope, ward nurses Patience Kankeh and Jan Martland and floater Katie Houle.
The entire team misses Dr. Hossein Aliabadi who was to have performed urological surgery but became ill on the way to Peru and had to return home. Get well Hossein and take comfort in the fact that your patients have been operated on by local surgeons who are very happy to be a part of this exciting mission to help their children.
That's all for now. Mary Batinich, Chiclayo. Peru
posted by Childrens Surgery International at 3:21 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home