CAMTA invited back to the Tierra Nueva Hospital!

CAMTA will return to the Tierra Nueva hospital from February 22nd to March 8th, 2009.
We need YOUR help so that the project can happen again!
Thanks.

Discharge/Pack/Sadly Drive Away

Saturday started a little later than the early days during the week. But there was still a lot of work to do. On the ward patients received final physiotherapy and final instructions about how to be careful once they were home. Final farewells with hugs and kisses sent most of our last few patients on there way.

Jair is a little handicapped child and he spent the night in the hospital before heading home with his parents. Many of the pediatric cases are day surgery.

Here's Ana Maria and Deb Chalupa. Patients and staff alike become fond of each other.

When Jorge had demonstated his ability with stairs using his crutches and with a bagful of presciptions for use at home he headed home. His family steered him out the door and into a waiting taxicab.

Meanwhile on the main floor the packing was in earnest. Everything in each of those hockey bags has been catalogued in our spreadsheets by Tom Shearer after being packed by one of the Adult OR, Peds OR, Recovery, Ward or Admin team members. Here's Mathew Moreau on the left and Jacquelyn in the middle. Eileen is on the right. Jacquelyn is the charge nurse at the Tierra Nueva and we are happy to see her coordinate our activities year by year at the Tierra Nueva. Those bags are going to stay right where you see them -- we are storing about 20 bags until next year with mostly disposable items but also surgical instruments.

And of course there a lot of things to return to Edmonton. Here's the bus being loaded to take the CAMTA team and those bags back to the hotel.

It was a wistful time! Last minute pictures help to stem the sense of sadness that comes with the end of another mission.

And so we get on the bus for the last time!

Off we head through the heavy traffic back to the hotel. The first people headed home on Sunday morning and the majority are gone on Monday morning, very early -- about 0700h.

Back at the hotel at 1700h there was a ceremony. Patricia Jarrin is presenting Adela Sandigo with her certificate of thanks and appreciation from the Tierra Nueva Foundation. The next picture shows Melissa Mackell. Everybody received a small gift.

There was time for some fun this weekend too. After saying goodbye at the Tierra Nueva some took the gondola or "funiculo" up the side of the volcano Pinchincha for a view of the city of Quito.

Tomorrow is the final blog posting until everybody is back in Edmonton. But read it! It'll be the story of Pablo's experience with CAMTA and the Tierra Nueva in his own words and in two languages. Read it -- it is powerful!

Thanks,

John and Boris

CAMTA celebrates, operates and packs.

Today was a happy-sad day at the Tierra Nueva. The day was profoundly busy but there was time to celebrate a little bit.

The surgery continued but every other minute was occupied by our exit inventory. Each year we get a little bit better about achieving accurate numbers to make the next year's packing easier. I called on Elyse in the pharmacy and she had prepared a list of the medications she can supply us directly in Ecuador. We really would prefer to reduce the weight of the materiels that we transport.

I had time to hit the street for some photos. This lady and her child were selling herbs just 20 metres outside the door of the Tierra Nueva. The child saw me taking the picture and came to have a look. Mother and her friend followed and asked me if I knew a friend in Canada. Of course I didn't.

I carried on to the end of the block where the Mayor of Quito has built a beautiful park. There are many different artworks in this city.

Here's a view from the park of the Tierra Nueva medical centre.

There are such beautiful murals on the outside of the building. This one celebrates Padre Carollo who founded the Tierra Nueva more than 40 years ago. He came from Italy as a very young priest and spent his entire life serving the poor in Quito.

Then I wandered SE past the ravine that is behind the hospital and found a marching band in the school yard. Somebody asked me what I was doing and I explained that I was "...part of the brigado Canadiense a la Tierra Nueva." That was enough explanation for them to welcome me into the school yard.

Back at the hospital, Eileen asked me to come with her to distribute flags and pins to the staff and patients. These two ladies wanted balls for their children.

Every year Eileen brings lots of flags and balls to the Tierra Nueva.

This lady was very happy to wave her flag for the photo.

Tomorrow we complete packing up and the staff at the Tierra Nueva are asking us to stay for a little celebration at 1230h.

That's Friday -- and watch tomorrow for some final packing photos and some views of our patients as they prepare to leave the hospital.

John

After the OR: Recovery on the Ward!

Today you'll see the ward in action. CAMTA nurses and the Tierra Nueva nurses working literally arm in arm (a brazo a brazo)

Here's Janet, the physio again with Kathleen Shearer. This little guy had a epiphysiodesis. If you want to know what is look it up. He had an infection in one knee and that changed the rate of growth. Look at that nice red cast -- courtesy of 3M.

Here's Darlene Hammell and Adela Sandigo. Adela is an RN and Spanish is her first language. That's so very handy since everybody can come running to Adela and get a first hand answer. Fern Cannon is from Cuenca but lives with her three children and husband in Katy, Texas. Fern has been a participant in our missions since 2002.

That's Marta in the middle between Adela and Deb Chalupa. Deb is a pro at orthopedic nursing since she is in charge of the orthopedic ward at the Misericordia Hospital. Martha is a long time nurse at the Tierra Nueva. She knows all the ins and outs of requisitions and lab tests.

Now look closely here. This young woman is ambulating on the stairs. Mom's at the bottom and watching Janet and Craig help her learn how to handle stairs with muleta's. That's crutches in Spanish.

But now a little surgery. Here's a club foot that was partially treated. This young girl is walking on the side of her foot. There was no possibility of a functional foot.

Notice on the right x-ray how the foot is turned inwards.

The only possibility to help this young woman was to fuse the ankle. Here's the final result with the pins to stabilize the joint while the bones fuse together.


Isn't this a beautiful shot of a happy family! That's student nurse Adrienne Robson kneeling and Clinical Nurse Educator Christina Hanna on the right. Everybody is just glowing!

Dr. Darlene Hammell examines Rodrigo. He's one of three patients this week who had bilateral hip replacements. The down side to a bilateral is higher blood loss. But they don't have to wait a year to get the second hip replaced.

This handicapped teenager is very happy but quite handicapped from her CP. She's quite smar upstairs and gave a number of us a drawing of mountains or houses done on her notepad. She was practicing her letters in a scribbler. Angela had tendon releases on both legs to improve her spasticity.

I had to include this shot because you can see just how bad this man's painful limp from his hip arthritis is. Note how he's tipped to one side as he is assisted by Eve Moreau and Heather Perl down the hall to the quirofanos. That's operating room in Spanish.

Here's another Pablo all tucked in and with sedation on board during his spinal anesthetic. I included this picture to show his sun-creased face from decade working in his field's to grow a crop on 5 acres to feed his family and sell for some cash.

We have one more day to operate! And then there is the big packing bee late on Friday to prepare some items for storage at the Tierra Nueva and others (such as the instruments) for return to Edmonton in the hockey bags. And we will say some sad goodbyes to our surgical nurses from the Tierra Nueva. The goodbyes for the nurses on the ward will be on the weekend because we'll still have patients in the hospital recovering from their late week surgery.

Thanks!