Abbott Canada provides their product for the fourth year!

Dr. Saifee Rashiq, Anesthesiologist approached Mr. Rob Krakauer, the Edmonton area District Manager for Abbott Anesthesia pharmaceuticals. CAMTA is pleased to announce that Abbott Canada has once again arranged for Abbott Ecuador to deliver six bottles of Sevorane to the Hospital Un Canto a la Vida in Quito Ecuador!


Thanks very much to Abbott for their generosity!  Sevorane is an essential medication to deliver safe and reliable anesthesia to our pediatric patients.  This gift will make a difference!

Happy New Year!

More than a clubfoot: A family with great strength under difficult circumstance

Today, a seven month old baby is receiving surgery for his clubfoot.  The story of his family is extraordinary.  There have been tears shared at the Tierra Nueva Hospital over the circumstance of this child's family.

Below is a picture of the translator Miha from the Cotapaxi School holding little Brandon.  We decided we cannot show you mother.  As you read on you will understand.

Brandon is a beautiful baby with one clubfoot.  He has no idea what his older sibs and his parents have experienced.

Here you can see that clubfoot.  It was casted at another hospital with one cast each 8 days for 12 consecutive castings.  But the foot has not straightened.

Here is Fern Cannon, our Ecuadorean cultural connection and a member of CAMTA since it's inception.  She collected the story from the mother.  She's carrying Brandon to the operating room.

In the operating room, Anesthesiologist Teresa Eliasson places a caudal block for post-operative comfort into Brandon.  Anesthesia Technician Glenn Day monitors the anesthesia and respirations.

Here's the monitor of hemoglobin and oxygen saturation from Masimo.

Brandon has four older sibs.  The parents and the first two children lived in Colombia and are now refugees in Ecuador. The last three children have been born in Ecuador since they became refugees here just over two years ago.  They operated a farm in Colombia and the FARC guerillas demanded payment of $250 per week.  The family and the other partner in the farm paid the extortion monthly for two years until they couldn't afford to pay it.  The guerilla's killed the business partner and stated they would kill the entire family if payment wasn't made the next day.

Brandon under anesthesia for his clubfoot surgery.

The family abandoned their property, their house, their car and took only two plastic bags of clothing.  They took a taxi to the border with Ecuador and asked for refugee status.

L to R: Drs. Tim Carey, Scott Wiens.  Nurse Donna Brown in background with Dr. Marc Moreau

They were admitted to a refugee camp but there wasn't enough food for the whole family so the parent's gave their food to the children.  One parent went without food each day.

L to R:  Donna Brown, Marc Moreau, Scott Wiens, resident in orthopedics, Tim Carey, pediatric orthopod, Jaime McInnis

Here's the instruments used in Brandon's surgery.

Now the family live in Quito Sur and the children stay in the one room apartment with no kitchen or bathroom while the parents work on the street selling cookies and candies. In the bedroom there is Katherine who is 10, Valeria who is 8, Joanide who is 4 and Michael, age 3 and Brandon who is 7 months.  The children are receiving only what education the mother has time for in the evenings: reading, writing and basic math.  They have seen guerillas they recognize on motorbikes in Quito and thus they fear for the lives of their children.  For this reason the children never, NEVER leave the building in which they live.  The father knows faces and names of terrible people in Colombia.

Thanks for reading.

John

Starting soon: CAMTA's "Gold Medal Equivalent" Mission 2010!

Hi All,

There has been some packing activity this last weekend, the final weekend before Team One departs on CAMTA Mission 2010.  There are 51 mission bags for week one plus probably 19 personal bags shared by the team members.  In addition the pedipods from Ottawa, Jay and Lou are each bringing a hockey bag with fibreglas casting material.  Week two has far fewer bags since they are only bringing top-up supplies.  But there may be a few calls in the days before they depart to bring down something we have forgotten!

On Monday, Marc Moreau and I appeared on Global TV Edmonton's morning news for a three minute interview with Mike Sobel.

Today I picked up three banners with the new CAMTA logo from Perry Gould of Digital Print and Imaging in Sherwood Park, Alberta.  Instead of two banners he supplied three at no extra cost.  He is another of the generous supporters of CAMTA who have provided free items or deeply discounted services.  Thanks, Perry! 

Wednesday, a group of seven CAMTA members will be presented to the Alberta Legislative Assembly by MLA Mr. George Rogers.  This is a first for CAMTA!  

On Thursday evening, a group (being organized by Matt Moreau) will load the cube van being provided by Marc Tardif of Echo Promotions and being driven by his Dad and CAMTA member Al Tardif.

Then in the wee hours of Friday we will assemble at our various airports and leave for the CAMTA Mission 2010.  Let us work hard together to deliver a "gold medal equivalent" to our patients in Ecuador!

Thanks.
John

CAMTA Container departs for Saskatoon!

Today at 1200h in Edmonton the CAMTA Container received it's final load of hospital equipment at the Misericordia Hospital.  Matthew Moreau led the group which included Jason Tong, Gayle Hiebert, Deb Chalupa, Heather Perl, Pauline Worsfold and Judy Black.
After receiving an operating room table and some Bair hugger machines that were donated by Associated Health Systems, the container moved to our CAMTA warehouse for some more light items.  Leroy, the volunteer driver from the IMED program of the Canadian Food for the Hungry in Saskatoon is driving home on Highway 16E as I write.


Staff at the IMED warehouse will reload, inventory and prepare the container to head to Ecuador.  The equipment will be used at the Hospital Canto a la Vida of the Tierra Nueva Foundation.  Check out the IMED program here!

A new voyage for CAMTA

In August, the CAMTA executive made a decision to support the Hospital Canto a la Vida of the Tierra Nueva Foundation in Quito, Ecuador by supplying hospital equipment to outfit the beautiful new building.

It's been a flurry of phone calls, visits to the hospital equipment depot and arrangements.  But finally today

 IT ALL STARTED TO HAPPEN!

Just after 10 this morning our wonderful three year old container arrived to receive the surplus hospital equipment that has been stored at Alberta Hospital Edmonton.  The volunteer team was ready and waiting.

Pablo Valenzuela, Sara Irving, Jason Tong, Andy Escalona and Matt Moreau were ready for the heavy lifting.  Glenn Day and I were there for the logistics.

There is no proper loading dock.  The gang lifted the stretchers one by one into the container.

Matthew rolled them to the back and locked the wheels.

Glenn helped the forklift driver load the operating room tables one by one onto the forklift.

Pablo rolled the operating room light into the back of the container.

I provided sidewalk supervision whilst the gang secured the neonatal beds with their tall overhead lights.

Here's Jason and Sara tightening up the belts!

And then with the mission accomplished, we poised with the truck driver for a photograph.

back:  Andy Escalona, Matt Moreau, Pablo Valenzuela, Jason Tong, Ken our truck driver

front:  Glenn Day, Sara Irving.

in the background:  CAMTA's FIRST CONTAINER SHIPMENT!!!!

Glenn then ceremoniously (mischievously) secured the container.

And to make sure there were no surprises and all arrangements were complete I followed the truck driver all the way to the Overland Container Service yard.  Here's the container going into storage!

What happens now?

In about 10 days we hope that more surplus hospital and computer equipment will be available.  We are waiting on paperwork!  And then the Canadian Food for the Hungry IMED staff will bring their trailer and tractor from Saskatoon to pick-up that container and return it to their home base for unloading, inventory and reloading with even more great hospital items like beds, stretchers, anesthetic machines and an ultrasound machine or two.  We even have two dental offices!  After customs paperwork we hope to ship the container by sea with arrival inland at Quito early in the spring.

Check out the Canadian Food for the Hungry IMED program here.

Watch for more news as the container program progesses!

Thanks.

John

Mission 2010 Teams Announced

The ninth CAMTA mission to Quito, Ecuador is going into active preparation mode!

The team members for each of our two mission weeks have been announced. Those team members will be planning their fundraising. Regular meetings will start in early October but work bees are already being planned.

Today Eileen and Heather met in the Guilfoyle/Lilley kitchen to list the pediatric instruments that require replacement or acquisition.

Here's Eileen on the left whilst Heather records what's needed for the pediatric instrument sets. There is a sale on instruments right now!

CAMTA acquired instruments over six years ago and a few of them require replacement.

In other news --- Heather Perl and Glenn Day visited the former Capital Health surplus warehouse (now Alberta Health Services) and examined surplus operating room equipment for shipment by container to the Tierra Nueva's new hospital, Canto a la Vida. CAMTA will use casino revenue to pay for the shipment of hospital beds, operating room tables, anesthesia machines and other gear help outfit the new hospital. The shipment is being made through the IMED division of the Canadian Food for the Hungry. They are experts at overseas shipment of containers.

We are also in the process of developing a new website. We have had discussions with one vendor and now a committee of members is reviewing our website needs. This also will be funded from our casino revenue.

Alberta charities are very lucky in that they are able to work at a casino every two years.

Casinos in Alberta are tightly regulated and are for the benefit of charitable organizations.

Thanks and watch for more soon!

John

Saint Albert Saint City Golf Tournament

Join CAMTA members and their friends for a great day of golf!
It's at the Sturgeon Valley Golf Course on Thursday, August 27th 0700h.
Click and go to the facebook event page for more info.
By participating you help Kids in Ecuador with Bony Problems!
Thanks.
See you there!
John

Hi Again - from Henrietta Goplen

I am really enjoying your blog.  I am sending it to as many people I can think of who might enjoy seeing it and  as well donating.
Enjoy your warm weather.  We are back in the midst of a blizzard in Saskatoon.  The news at home is Obama leads the headlines. The federal government trying to help the recession.  Saskatchewan now a have province, you should all come home.  Lots of terrible court cases and nasty accidents across Western Canada.  Team Camada won the Scotty and the Men's Brier starts.  The Olympics are a year away.  But your team is doing the most important work.  Take care Henrietta Goplen.

It´s not all about surgery! There´s care on the ward too!

The ward delivers the superb care that gets the patients back on their feet and gives them the skills they need with their crutches to return safely home. Here´s Sarah Southon, Nurse Practioner in Pediatric Orthopedics, Family Doc Doris Kent with Marta at the nursing desk. Marta is a long time Tierra Nueva staff nurse who has worked with us for years. I´m sorry I don´t know the name of the other Tierra Nueva nurse. This year we also have some Tierra Nueva nursing students working on the floor.

Graduate Nurse Robyn Goplen is with Yolanda who had her total hip this very day! Watch for video to be posted of her taking her first steps with her new hip!

Linda Ushkowski, Adela Sandigo RN´s both with Dr. Doris Kent in the charting-medication-storage room.

Clinic Day for Team Two - Sunday March 1st

The bus transported Team Two to the hospital at 0800h on Sunday. Some Team One members came in too since there were patients to care for on the ward. And it´s important to brief everyone about the events of the week and where the medication and the equipment is located. Here´s a little girl with the Canadian flag:

Here Robyn Goplen, Graduate Nurse assesses a young woman who needs a total hip arthroplasty. Sonya has had dysplastic hips since childhood. She walks with a terrible limp and has a hard time sleeping. We only had about three surgical slots left after the first clinic. There were 60 patients to see and the majority were follow-up patient exams. It was great to see last year´s patients. There were lots of hugs and kisses.

These two tykes received hip surgery last year. Aren´t they cute!


Here´s their extended family. Mom, Dad, sister and grandpa.



Here´s another family. Everybody wears their Sunday best to the clinic!



There was time for a picture of some of the 40 team two members in scrubs. From left to right is Barb, Marc, Cori, Pauline (star of the CBC 2006 documentary) Ron, Heather, Paul and Robin.

Pedipod Marc Moreau watches the gait of a child with cerebral palsy. We´ll help him to walk a little better with tenotomies to let his feet be flat on the floor!

Here´s Dorothy, Bev and Rebecca with Omar. He´s enjoying all the attention!

Dan Ducholke is fixing the label printer. Everybody loves the labels that our database, designed by Mark Fedorak, produces. Dan is a mechanical engineer who is our data man for week two.

If you think we are doing good work in Ecuador then join our FACEBOOK group at www. facebook.com. Search for the group called ECUADOR 2009.

Team One hands off care to Team Two

On Friday evening, Team Two arrived after their long trip from Edmonton, Bonnyville, Kelowna, Vancouver and Texas. On Saturday evening everybody enjoyed dinner together and we continued the tradition of a picture of each team. About 12 of our members from both teams enjoyed a game of soccer. For Ecuadoreans (and most of the world) this is known as FOOTBALL. FOOTBALL is a national passion in Ecuador and six games were played in Quito on Saturday. Each and every CAMTA member except Sam Stetsko arrived at the dinner in football shirts. Sam couldn´t because there wasn´t one large enough for this former football player.

Team One of CAMTA Mission 2009

Team Two of CAMTA Mission 2009

Find your friends and relatives! They are all there!

Our patients are recovering

Here´s Eileen, Jose and his Mom just before Jose entered the operating room for his surgery. Jose was another of the many many children we have seen this year with dysplastic hips! These kids walk with a limp and then grow up to have very very early osteoarthritis which when it becomes severe limits their ability to work and feed their families.

Dr. Orlando scrubbed in with Ed Masson and Greg O´Connor again. Earlier he scrubbed in on Pablo´s hip surgery and Pablo translated for him while Pablo himself had surgery! Amazing!

Jenna Coulombe has just finished her Human Ecology degree and applied to come as a lay student with CAMTA, two years ago. Here she is learning about what anesthesiology might mean as a career. This type of exposure is done only under the direct and continuous control of anesthesiologist Dr. Andriy Rodyniuk.



Meanwhile in recovery room Charlette Opper and Erin Nikolic care for a little tyke after surgery.



Consuelo has had an amazing experience this week. She volunteered as a translator. Consuelo moved from Colombia to Edmonton many years ago and raised her children single handedly. She has never had an experience with such emotional power as her experience this week. She is a CAMTA translator. She says she will participate as a translator for as many years as she can. Consuelo has been in tears. She is a very compassionate woman.

The child Consuelo is with has cerebral palsy. He´s 13 years old. When parents have such a kid in Ecuador there isn´t much support like at home in Edmonton. This little guy has some contractures in his tendons and a seizure disorder. His mental ability is about age 2. He needed tendon releases so that his parents can get him up in a chair or help him to stand.

Jenna Coulombe carried this tiny little 13 year old into the operating room for his surgery.

Meanwhile next door in the adult theatre, medical student Sheena Sikora is pictured here making the incision for a hip arthroplasty. She is under the direction of Drs. Greg O´Connor and Ed Masson. Sheena is thinking of orthopedic surgery or plastics as a career. We want her in orthopedics!

On the right is RN Debbie Jaraway. She´s a pediatric OR nurse but for fun she did an adult hip today.

In the pediatric room with the Pedro - the boy with CP asleep, Darcie scrubbed in. Eileen taught her about sterile surgical technique on Wednesday. Now was her turn to scrub and observe.

Then the surgery progressed back in the adult room. Loreno is getting her femoral prosthesis implanted here.

Pedro now has his tendons released and two cylinder casts applied. He´ll keep these casts for six weeks. Left to right we have Dr. Andriy Rodyniuk, RN Eileen Guilfoyle, Dr. Marc Moreau, Ms. Darcie Stein and Dr. Jay Jarvis. Jay is from Ottawa. Everyone else is from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.