Yesterday was so busy that I didn't get to the blog. It was the first Monday since my arrival and the word had gotten out that I was around. Patients pored in to the hospital. Between the 9 surgeries, I saw about 50 patients with all types of horrendous problems.
We are glad that Eric, the chief nurse anesthetist, is feeling better. He has chicken pox!!! He and his children are all recovering. Nonetheless, he came to work and helped us. We now have 3 anesthetists-Wison, Prince and Eric. All 3 are experts. With their help we were able to do nine surgeries today including a splenectomy, a goiter, a LN biopsy, fuguration of skin cancers, a breast lumpectomy, bilateral salpingoophorectomy rectopexy, excision of an abdominal wall mass and an incarcerated, strangulated ovary in a pediatric hernia.The last case was very interesting from an anesthesia viewpoint. I saw the patient in clinic and decided to operate. Eric had the 3 month-old baby asleep within 15 minutes. A record for any part of the world.
We had a great surprise. Ngozi, our patient from last trip with advanced dermatofibosarcoma protuberans, came for a check up. You may remember that we did a radical resection of her shoulder area including her pectorals muscle, deltoid muscle, upper trapezius muscle, upper breast and clavicle. We transposed her lower breast for tissue coverage over the shoulder joint. She later had a skin graft. She is doing great!!!
This little girl came in with a thyroglossal duct cyst. I was surprised when I asked her to open her mouth. She has several accessory teeth.
Our patient, Chinaka, from last trip came for a check-up. We performed a left hemimandibulectomy for an ameloblastoma. He is doing great and gaining weight despite the loss of most of his right mandible.
We have 21 patients waiting for surgery and many more are still coming.
