Holiday Greetings

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2016!

Thank you for your year-round gift/support in many ways that makes my mission here in Shisong, Cameroon satisfactory. I could have not asked for more gift than this.

May our loving God bless you abundantly - particularly good health.

Pediatric Surgeries

My mission time is going so fast.  During the last two weeks of September, the Mozambican doctors came to St. Elizabeth Catholic General Hospital to perform open heart surgery on pediatric patients who have congenital heart defects.  It was a very busy time because they did two open heart surgeries every day and each one was admitted to ICU. 

Among all of the patients, three were very critical post operatively. Most of them were stable and it was as if I see miracles of life in them. It was a good feeling to see the interaction of the parents and the little patients after the operation.

The principal cardiac surgeon was very enthusiastic in teaching us his expectations on the care of his patients. I learned a lot from him and felt very satisfied to take part on his medical mission. Sad to say, there were children who were not able to be operated on because they did not meet the criteria for surgery. This mission group will come back in January 2016 so those who did not make it this time will hopefully have their turn.

I found it very satisfying to follow up the care of those post-operative patients in the post-surgical ward after their discharge from ICU.  I mainly did their Chest physiotherapy, dressing change and giving advice to the parents of the children.

This past week our hospital cardiac surgeon performed open heart surgery of our adult patients - one patient daily. Overall my ICU work is going well and I am enjoying my patients and their families and my co-workers.

Initial Observations

At St. Elizabeth Catholic General Hospital ICU and cardiac ward, one of the night nurses leads the morning prayer and reads the scripture at one of the patient's bedside every day during morning rounds.  At the hospital chapel there is morning prayer every day at 6:45a.m. and many employees attend before working.   There is a mass celebrated by the hospital chaplain at 6:30a.m. twice a week.

A guardian or a family member is allowed by the administration to stay with the patient the whole time the patient is hospitalized.  They are given the facility to wash their clothes and cook their food too if they like, or they buy cooked food from our canteen. The guardians/family members  help a lot in taking care of the patients.

We follow team nursing and we have a good teamwork. Employees normally work 6 days a week and nurses go on shift rotation.  Our patients in ICU are only post cardiac surgery patients and when there are no patients we work in the cardiac ward. Two days is the routine stay of a patient in ICU.