Day #6: Monday October 29, 2012 "Surgery"

Case #1:  Mitral Valve Replacement

Case #2:  Mitral Valve Replacement

Monday, October 29th was our first day of adult cardiac surgery at Tenwek Hospital.  The mission statement of Tenwek is 'We Treat Jesus Heals'.  In the United States, the entire surgical team is required to stop everything and participate in a 'time out' to verify the patient name, surgical procedure, required supplies for the procedure and to answer any questions that anyone on the surgical team may have prior to beginning the surgery.

In Tenwek that is done as well, but an additional requirement is for the entire team to stop and pray for the patient by name and the medical team.  The video above is the first prayer for our first patient by Dr. Russ White.

Dr. White on the right with one of his residents during our first open heart procedure.

This is the heart-lung machine we've been using at Tenwek for the past 5 years.  It is pieced together from  several different pumps and is the first pump I used when I graduated from perfusion school in 1985.  The monitor in the upper left corner of the photo went out on the pump this visit.  Even with the new cable provided by Samaritan's Purse, we couldn't get the monitor up and going.  Looks like we'll be keeping track of our pump times with our iPhones this trip ;)

Johnson working with our Andrew, our Kenyan anesthetist who is training to be the local perfusionist for Tenwek's open heart procedures.

Johnson reviewing the pre-bypass checklist with Andrew before going on bypass.

Me working with Andrew and Shadrack, the 2 Kenyan medical staff who are training to be the perfusionists for the Tenwek Hospital staff.