Wednesday
has by far been my most exciting day since arriving here. In the morning I was
lucky enough to return to Zapatitos and play with the little boys. They are
fascinated with English and made Mali, Kyle, and I write out list after list of
words for them. One little boy made Mali write out every single number up to
100 in English for him. Part of what I love most about Mali is how happy she is
to do anything asked of her. In true Mali form she wrote out every single
number with a smile on her face just so happy to be contributing to this little
boy’s day. I admire her so much for her constant optimism and constant
willingness to serve.
That afternoon I went into
Cochabamba to CBA (Clinica Bolivia Americana) and had the opportunity to
observe two different surgeries. The first one was on a man who nine days
previously had been hit by a car and had severe injuries. The surgery being
performed on him that day was on his tibia (one of his shin bones), which had
been completely broken in half. He needed a metal rod inserted to allow
stability in his shin. When we entered the operating room his shin had a slit
almost a foot long running along the top of it. There, in plain sight was the
entirety of the anatomy of his lower leg. I could see muscles, tendons, and of course,
the completely severed tibia. They allowed us to observe the whole surgery only
a mere foot from the patient. In order to secure the metal rod the surgeons had
to drill holes in his bone before screwing the rod in place. I was incredibly
nervous for this part because I was sure the sound of metal being drilled into
bone would be too much for me to handle but it actually didn’t bother me in the
slightest. The rod was successfully inserted and screwed into place and the
slit was sewed back together as if none of it had ever taken place. It is just
fascinating to me how one second everything is a bloody mess with bone chips
everywhere and the next it is only a neat row of stitches.
The second surgery I observed was a
planned Cesarean Section. Cesarean Sections are very common here and it had
been my goal for the trip to observe at least one take place so I was thrilled when
I was given the chance to do so. It was honestly life changing; watching a life
come into the world turned my world upside down. The initial prep of placing
the epidural and creating the incision in both the epidermis and the uterus is
extremely calm and methodical. Once the incision has been made in the uterus
however, there is a rush of movement and out of the blood and layers of skin a
head becomes obvious. Then, in the blink of an eye, a baby is pulled from the
incision and there, in front of your eyes, is a new, perfect, life. The baby I
watched being born was a tiny little girl and to see the look on her father’s
face as she was being born and the way he stood over her with such a look of
fascination was the most amazing thing.
Thursday morning one of the
volunteers, Jeff, who is a trained paramedic held a training course for the
Paramedics employed by the hospital. I was able to sit in on this training
course and afterwards Jeff taught us how to perform intubation and place IVs
and I got to practice doing both of these on training dummies. It was the most
practical medical procedure I’ve ever been taught and it made me extremely
excited to take an EMT class somewhere down the road.
This weekend I am traveling to Lake
Titicaca with some of the other volunteers. It will be a three-day round trip
with a ton of bus time, which is too bad, but hopefully it will be worth it.
Please pray for safe travels!
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