The first case of 2011 went well! It was a mitral valve replacement on a 23 year old woman and she is doing great! She was extubated last night and is already up sitting in a chair and it's less than 24 hours since her surgery!
Day 2 case 1 is currently underway! First up is a double valve replacement followed by a single valve replacement this afternoon. The morning has had it's share of excitement for Chris & Gio (my fellow perfusionists in the picture with me). The oxygen pressure randomly drops making us unable to oxygenate the patient on bypass (or as we say in perfusion "turn blue to red"). But we were prepared and had an oxygen sitting right behind the pump and quickly switched over to that for the several minutes it took for the wall oxygen to return. Crisis averted!!! And at least the power didn't go off during this! So far we've been fortunate that it hasn't gone off while we're on bypass, but it's just a matter of time. But we're prepared for that too and have the pump plugged into an uninterrupted power supply and have a hand crank on the pump should that fail.
Hope everyone enjoys the superbowl tonight! We'll be missing it since it will be airing during the middle of the night here and we'll be fast asleep resting up for day 3. Have some chili and Dr. Pepper for me! Definitely can't get those in Rwanda!
Samantha
So exciting!!! Thank you for the updates :) I am praying for your safety
ReplyDelete