Month: November 2015

Big Day In The OR/Day 6

The first case of the day was a left tibial plateau fracture sustained in a motorcycle accident a few days ago.    After touring the orthopedic ward at the University Hospital downtown yesterday we are once again reminded that trauma, particularly the musculoskeletal variety, remains a neglected epidemic in developing countries like Haiti causing more than five million deaths …

Day Of Rest/Day 5

Since Hopital Adventiste is a Seventh-day Adventist sponsored facility, no elective surgery is performed on the 7th day Sabbath.  Obviously, this mandate is set aside when it comes to emergent cases that present to the trauma bay.  Around midnight this morning we were awakened by the Chief of Surgery, Dr Alex Coutsoumpus, who informed us that …

Taylor Spatial Frames/Day 4

We spent time sorting through and organizing gear in the new orthopedic equipment room.  Again, we were expecting to have a much bigger task in front of us but Elaine Lewis and JJ had performed wonders prior to our arrival so all that was left was taking care of a few small details. We performed …

New Team Members/Day 3

We performed several small surgeries today including a bilateral 8-plate application for pediatric lower extremity angular deformities, a Girdlestone procedure (femoral head resection) in a paralytic patient, debridement of chronic tibial osteomyelitis and removal of a tibial external fixator with debridement of infected pin tract sites.  We also slogged through another clinic which is always …