Day 9 – Second Week Begins
Contributed by Erin Sadler
Today marked the beginning of the second week of surgery. We had procedures taking place at both Mulago and Case Hospitals. At Case Hospital, Dr. Lieberman was performing a revision of hardware. At Mulago, Dr. Ughwanogho, one of Dr. Lieberman’s fellows, completed his first case on his own. He did a fantastic job operating on a 20 year old male with a cervical burst fracture. It was not only his surgical competency that I was so impressed by, but earlier in the day while he was rounding, Dr. Ughwanogho blew me away. It was during his interaction with a young man who had been in a motorcycle accident and had an odontoid fracture in his neck. After discussing with him the potential surgery that may be necessary for him, Dr. Ughwanogho proceeded to get to know more about the patient, and in doing so learned that he was in school training to be a pilot. Furthermore, learning the operation he had been suggesting, could potentially compromise this young man’s future career. Immediately, Dr. Ughwanogho realized these implications and quickly adapted his plan to accommodate an outcome that is more in favor of this young man’s future profession. Dr. Ughwanogho’s display of compassion and patient-focused care makes him a very strong role model that any surgeon-hopeful can, and should, look up to.
After a long day, we arrived back home and turned on the television to watch some Olympics, but were quickly distracted by the CNN headlines of the Ebola outbreak in Uganda. After a few seconds of watching we were even more surprised to see a screen shot of the Mulago hospital, the hospital we had just operated at all last week, and all day today. Although we had been aware that Ebola was present in the Kibaale district, we were not informed of its presence at Mulago until now. This made most of us quite uneasy, and in no time family members were sending emails and texts sharing their concerns for our safety. We were later told that Mulago had not yet confirmed cases of Ebola, but there were several health care professionals being quarantined. We were more reassured when we heard that the airports were still open, there had been no travel restrictions placed on Uganda, and the belief from health officials that if there was any suspicious virus, it had been contained at Mulago.
In an attempt to take our minds off of our worry about the current situation, we went for an absolutely incredible dinner at the Kampala Serena Hotel. This buffet dinner had the most delicious fresh avocado smoked tilapia, beef kebabs, and a smorgasbord of desserts. After filling ourselves to the brim, we headed home. Before going to bed, much to the delight of our Polish anesthesiologists, we watched the Poland Men’s Beach Volleyball team (or as Jason astutely puts it, “sand” volleyball since they are not playing on a beach during this Olympics) defeat the USA team. We then retired to bed, some us quite nervous as to what tomorrow would hold with respect to going to Mulago to operate, and furthermore, the implications of our travelling home with this health threat brewing.