OR Day 1

The decision to start with one case was a wise one. The snowstorm forcing the ICU team reschedule was part of the decision to start Saturday later morning. Hopefully, the rest of the ICU will arrive by 12 noon in one hour....and we will be up to full speed by tomorrow. Many plans are part of the consideration of how many to do and how many cases per day. From the very beginning, we decided that our program would have a focus on development for a building a local program...not a race to show how many cases we cases we can do.

Today, our first case is a lovely young lady which we seen before on previous visits. She, like many of the patients, is here alone and will depend on the compassion of support of this incredible team to help her though the ICU and early post operative days. Stoically she listened intently to the list of tubes and support and the need for them. I can just tell she will be a cooperative patient and play a strong role in her recovery.

The list is as final as it can be here. The labs tests are not completed until they make the list, so there might be a few cancel if something should turn out abnormal. We have really been lucky to have the pre-op screening done with Pat and Marilyn and Taufiek --but Taufiek prepares to leave later tonight. He has been wonderful asset to have him with us and we will miss him as he returns to Boston.

The photo is KFH ICU nurse, George with Kumar the Bio-med, setting up the vent. The local staff has been wonderful and very willing to help. However there have been many changes in the hospital personnel and we miss those faces. Because of the turnover, some supplies had been moved and we spent many hours locating. We will certainly need to improve that part of the system or else return to the 3-4 day pre-op un-packing and set-up we used before.

So keep us in your thoughts as this lovely young woman gets her only chance at the opportunity to have surgical repair of her very destroyed valve to improve her health. We have an incredible talented team, surgeons, anesthesil, perfusion and nursing--we balance with the very real reality of the challenges of the system-- But doing so can make all of us better at what we do.