MONDAY, MARCH 26, 2007

So its a bit rough here on the technology side of things. I just gave an anesthetic for an urgent c-section, prolonged labour and cephalo-pelvic disproportion. Just as we were about to start the
anaesthestic... rain, and the power goes out. There is no O2 cylinder, just an oxygen concentrator, and there's some hesitation about inhalational anaesthetic in the absence of supplemental oxygen.

Oh and the generator wasn't kicking in, they were trying to fix it.
So by the light filtering through the window we induced and used ketamine for the anaesthetic, supplemented with valium after the baby was out, the surgeon worked with just one high efficiency bulb (i.e not terribly bright) hanging from a wire in the ceiling, and flashlights to check for bleeding before closing. But it all worked out, the baby is well, mother is well.

I also saw a bit of a funny moment, the student nurse had taken the baby out for to run to the ward and was changing into his regular uniform from his scrubs before heading off, and he had placed the baby, wrapped in fuzzy blankets and all, in the cubby hole for large scrubs while he changed. I thought that was hilarious. We'd have had a complex and expensive system for bypassing that happening.

It all fit, the OR is kinda like what you'd see in MASH, its a permanent building, but with pretty open circulation, widows for sure, but not air tight. A bare concrete floor in the OR, plain wooden
benches in the change room with the door leading right out side looking over the valley. There's a serious shortage of clutter (which is awesome!) no extra tables for instruments (no extra instruments) and no piles of random machines, just wooden walls, the OR table, the instruments in use, an anaesthetic table and a portable surgery light... and the single high efficiency solar powered bulb hanging by a wire from the ceiling.

Enough babbling already.