Patient stories and Thanksgiving

It's been a busy week on the Africa Mercy!

If you've been following this blog, you know that our cute orthopedic patients are done with their surgeries.  But I can't resist showing you a couple of before and almost after pictures of twins who had surgery.

Here is the before surgery picture- I think you can see their bowed legs.

And these are the almost after pictures.  Almost, because these cuties will be coming back for physical therapy in the out-patient tent for a while.  And in the hospital, we can hear the whine of the saw when casts are being removed.  So the healing continues.

So what surgeries kept us so busy this week?

Cleft lip/palate surgeries and facial tumor surgeries happen throughout the field service.
I'm posting a photo of a facial tumor at the end of this post, so if disturbing medical pictures bother you, don't look!

There are a lot of facial tumors in West Africa.  In developed countries, these tumors start out as a small lump, and are quickly removed.  They are benign. When the medical team does the screening, they try to assess  where the tumor is growing.  When it invades the trachea, the patient will suffocate.
Sometimes the tumors can get quite large before they cause a breathing crisis.

On Thursday afternoon (American Thanksgiving) we got a call in the lab about a  tumor surgery that had vascular involvement, so there was a lot of bleeding.  The patient had been crossmatched for 2 units of blood, but they were going to need more.  We had two more available.  They also wanted some fresh units, which are better for the clotting factors.  So we started calling our crew donors!
The patient took 6 units of blood, and we had a unit left over to bank in case he needed more.  He came through the surgery, and is healing.

So it was a busy Thanksgiving.  Chuck saved some turkey dinner for me from our dining hall.  I'm thankful to be here and to be a part of the work.  I'm thankful to the crew who stop everything to  give a unit of blood.  I'm thankful for the kitchen staff who cook up Thanksgiving dinner.  And I'm thankful to God who makes it all happen.

Debbie

Facial tumors in West Africa.