Our first full day--touring the hospital

Dr. Chris Gilbert, from International Children's Heart Foundation, leads the surgery team along with Dr. Jorge Crespo who is the local cardiac surgeon.   Starting with a 7 am breakfast, we headed to the hospital with more than 30 large boxes in tow carrying medical supplies from the US.  Erin Brenner, our lead OR Nurse, brought sutures and other expensive medical supplies donated by US hospitals.  Other supplies were coordinated by Zorayda, our local medical coordinator.  The hospital took the delivery of the supplies so seriously that after we stored them in one of the two ORs we're using, the hospital staff changed the locks on the door and gave our team the keys without any other staff keeping copies.

After supplies were couriered to the second floor OR, we began a hospital tour.  The Ecuadorian government has a new initiative to upgrade the public hospitals, committing more resources and capital to improving the quality of care.  Caren, MKI's Mission Coordinator who arrived in Guayaquil several days before the entire group, told us that most of the hospital was repainted, small repairs made, and a general scrub down of the facility was done.  This work was evident when we came into the recovery room where they had emptied out 14 beds, all for MKI patients that are being treated over the next two weeks.

Last week there was a 7.2 earthquake though, and although there was no structural damage to the hospital, the elevator, the only elevator, stopped working.  They repaired it, but like I would learn soon, there are so many interdependent moving parts to make a mission work.  For instance, without the elevator, the patients could not easily be transferred from the first floor OR and ICU to the third floor recovery room.  To prevent any mechanical instance from distributing our mission, the hospital director would dispatch the elevator mechanic to stay on the hospital grounds throughout our stay.

After our tour, Dr. Gilbert reviewed the children who are seeking surgery.  In a small room, crowded by doctors, nurses, and staff, children between the ages of 5 and 14 were laid on the table where echocardiograms were taken of their chests.  In the next two weeks, we'll be able to do about 18 surgeries on children with some form of heart defect.  Often these defects prevent the kids' blood from delivering adequate oxygen to the body and as a result you can see a blueness in their fingertips and lips.  The kids can also struggle with low energy levels because of the low oxygenation.  We hope to see in most of the kids significant changes after their heart repair surgeries, changing their lives dramatically from one major surgery.

Zak Kidd, MKI Surgical Mission Volunteer