Today our main goal was to build a fuller picture of the hospital’s current capacity and what resources are already available to us. We visited again with the Solises to gain more insight. Dr. Marialita (Obstetrician/Gynecologist) and Dr. Alfred Solis (General Surgeon), who I mentioned in my last blog have worked in Kenya for 14 years—many of which were spent at Kendu Adventist Hospital (KAH). For the last few years, they have worked to develop Nyanchwa Adventist Mission Hospital which is a small hospital located in Kisii. We wanted their perspective on the work we are trying to do and to learn the challenges they faced at KAH.
Dr. Victor Oteki (Mesiani), who has almost completed his Orthopedic surgery residency, traveled with us to KAH to see the operating rooms. Here he is assessing the orthopedic surgery sets to determine whether it is adequate for the cases that we hope to do.
There are three operating rooms. Two of which are used. We reviewed the safety of the anesthetic equipment and the adequacy of the surgical equipment and are making recommendations and assessing how we can contribute to achieving improvements.
One of the major challenges in developing countries is safe anesthesia. The equipment is costly, and continually changing.
This is Charles, who is in charge of nursing in the Operating Rooms. He has worked at KAH for 14 years and provided us with history and an excellent perspective. He is committed to the success and improvement of the operating room—a view that is also shared by the two nurse anesthetists who raised many safety concerns that they would like to see addressed.
Here we were reviewing all of the surgeries done over the past few months. There is one surgeon currently working at the hospital who is present two days a week. On the other days, when there are emergency cases such as C-sections, traumas, etc., the Medical officers (equivalent to Physician’s assistants) perform the surgeries on their own. This also occurs in public hospitals. Most of the cases currently done at the hospital are general surgery cases and c-sections. The hospital does not currently have an orthopedic surgeon and therefore sends those cases away. Our plan will really help to build capacity by bringing a local orthopedic surgeon to the hospital on a regular schedule to assist in performing the corrective surgeries on children for ABW, and potentially to also assist the hospital with some cases that they would otherwise have to send away. We are very grateful for the enthusiasm of Dr. Victor Oteki and his partner, and the nurse anesthetists, and OR nurses.
