Our first day at Labo District Hospital

The Rotary did things right with a sound system and tents in the front yard for people waiting to be seen in clinic.

First day in Labo.   I woke up at 12:30, 3:30 and for keeps at 5:00. It rained all night and was very humid in the morning. We made good time getting to the hospital about 7:30. Unpacking was slow mainly because we brought a lot of things we won't use and some of the drugs that we will need were wantonly tossed into a box filled with  shipping peanuts. Finally everything found a home and we did our first cases starting about 1:30 pm. I put a 13 year- old boy to sleep for a cleft lip repair. His age was not certain because his mother abandoned him. The guy was very brave about the IV. It's a little eerie to put someone to sleep using just a blood pressure cuff and a pulse odometer for monitors. I've had to cross-fill an isoflurane vaporizer with halothane and I'm not confident in the vaporizer output. It seems to shut off if I set it for less than 2%. Anesthetizing  infants tomorrow will be interesting.

View from the operating room. The bull seemed pretty tame, no tether.

Our second case was a ten year-old for a keloid excision from the right pinna. The mass looked very ugly so I hope he gets good result. I used a LMA for this case and all went smoothly. I have five cases for tomorrow so I hope the day starts on time. I have to be mindful about cutting corners: the rule of tens, for instance. One of the local docs had a two week old for a cleft lip repair. I stood by the 10 weeks, 10 pounds, 10 grams of hemoglobin. I hope the baby gets fixed before too long but it' s not right to take chances on these kids.