Author Archives: Children's Surgery International

Saturday afternoon the group split into two groups, one going on a tour of Monrovia taking in the urban grit of Liberia’s capital city. The other visited teh Frances Gaskin Orphanage. We had the opportunity to distribute soccer balls which were donated by CSI Partner Michael Silvio;puzzles, dolls, signed soccer balls and books donated by Crocus Hill School, a preschool in St Paul; de- worming pills and dumdum suckers.

Dr. Dave Tetzlaff coordinated the donation of 300 pairs of shoes donated by Soles4Souls.
Debra Frasier (author of the terrific children’s book,”On the Day You Were Born) donated crowns and books. There was even a tent celebrating Children’s Reading from the Minnesota State Fair.

Off to bed to get ready for an early morning of screening at the hospital! Everyone is very excited as word is we have a very full day of very needy patients.

Videographer Nolan Morice, Co-founder of Line Break Media in Minneapolis which produces marketing and films for “all causes seeking justice”, is volunteering his firm’s time by filming for CSI in Liberia. Here he “lends” his expensive camera to an orphan who pretends to make a video. Highlighted in the lens is the writing from the Firestone truck, our sponsor who provides transportation, housing, food and sponsorship for our time here.

Medical Records volunteer Katie Stewart distributes soccer balls that have been signed by her students at Crocus Hill Preschool in St. Paul. We want to give a special shout out to Crocus Hill School which moved locations this year and donated 30 + boxes of “No longer needed but really appreciated at the orphanages CSI visits” goodies.

Our team was busy in surgery again today. Here are some pictures of some of our patients and also our team. The dollies were donated by a wonderful group of women in California called Dollies Making a Difference. The team departs Tuesday morning around 11a. Another successful mission! We are looking forward to our 10th mission next year. A special thanks to St Andrew’s Childrens’ Clinic and the staff and volunteers at CIMA Hospital for making the mission such a success.

Our patients and team were thrilled to meet the band Hairball at the hospital.

We had a great day today–we had 96 kids we were prepared to screen, 87 showed up and got screened, and we are planning to do surgery on 38 of them, 19 tomorrow and 19 Monday.

It was  chaos at first but within the hour we had it down to a system and the rest of the day flowed as smoothly as seeing 87 patients in one day can go. Unfortunately we are not all here yet…we are waiting for Laura Glass, our second floor nurse to arrive this evening, and Mike Fritz, one of our surgeons, is still in Dallas, whence it seems the fastest way to get to Hermosillo is to fly to Mexico City and back. Or was it Berlin? We may have to pare back the schedule but will do our best to fit in as many cases as we can, safely.

And we would like to give a shout out to Hairball! When we checked in at the airport in Minneapolis , the agent asked if we were with that rock band. Um, no. But they were going to Hermosillo, too. She thought they maybe were Kiss; we found that unlikely. Someone said they were called Airborne. I sat next to them on the plane, where they listened to music, drank soft drinks, and looked out the window the whole way to Phoenix–it was crazy! They are staying at the same hotel as us, so we got to talking this morning. They are a heavy metal cover band/pyrotechnic spectacle from Minneapolis, and they are playing a gig in Hermosillo tonight. We told them about the work we are doing here and invited them to stop by the hospital if they had time, and they came this afternoon after they finished their sound check! The kids were thrilled, as were the hospital staff–many photos and smiles all around!! It was a great touch to a great day–it was really nice of them to take the time to stop by!  I never thought I would say thank you and Hairball in the same sentence, but thank you, Hairball. 🙂

We had a splendid surgical day one! We performed 4 primary cleft lip repairs, 7 palate repairs, 4 bone grafts, along with 4 lip revisions and surgeries to improve speech.

This was the full schedule as planned, even though Dr. Fritz’s arrival was delayed until almost noon. His trip took him through Cleveland, Chicago, Tulsa, Dallas and Phoenix. Needless to say, he needed to hit the ground running! Kudos to Dr. Fritz!

This morning a few CSI team members returned to the hospital to do the final round of discharging patients, and make sure we had all of our supplies packed up. When they got back to the hotel, we loaded up our bus, and were on the road back to Dhaka shortly after 8 AM. Thankfully, we had a much shorter bus ride than last year’s team (21 hours due to the holiday Eid), and arrived safely at the Dhaka Regency around 3:30 PM, with time to relax before dinner.

The RCMC Hospital CEO, his wife, and other guests came to the hotel’s Restaurant to have a delicious buffet dinner with us on our last evening together in Bangladesh.

It was a bittersweet dinner as we all began to say our farewells. In the morning, about half of the group will be traveling further south to Chittagong for a few days on the beach before returning to the States. The rest of the team has been invited over to Raj’s family’s home for lunch before heading to the airport.

All in all, we had a fantastic and very successful trip thanks to all of the RCMC Hospital staff and administration, the people of Bangladesh who have assisted us along the way, the CSI team members here in Bangladesh, and support from everyone at home.

Today was our last day of surgery, and finished up the last 8 cleft lips on our schedule.  It was a hectic day as we had to simultaneously had to operate, finish CPR training, pack up the ORs and all of our supplies, and say our goodbyes to all the hospital staff we had worked so closely with throughout the week.

We will also miss the creative energy of all the patients and their siblings livening up the ward.

It was tough to let go. Heather, Norie, Saira, and Aliza transitioned care of the remaining post-operative patients to the RCMC hospital nurses during their final night before discharge.

As the CSI team began to finish up at the hospital, a few decided to go on another rickshaw tour of Rangpur.  We got a great feel for the city, and they took us to the Rangpur Zoo. The Zoo had a beautiful park, and a wide variety of animals, however we noticed some cultural differences in how locals interact with the exhibits.

We wrapped up the evening with a ceremony to recognize all of the hospital staff and administration’s hard work throughout the week. We handed out certificates of appreciation and certificates for completing CPR training, in addition to holding a raffle. The big hit of the night were the traditional Bangla folk dances that ended with the entire CSI team awkwardly joining in. It was definitely a highlight of the week to all watching.

We ended the evening with a dinner back at our hotel (RDRS) with a select few hospital administrators. It has been a long, but very rewarding week. Tomorrow we sadly will begin our travels home too soon.

Surgery – Day 4

This morning, we started off with a hearty breakfast of bananas, shuzi (a porridge), luchi (fired puffed bread), alu bhaji (a spiced hashbrown dish), rolls, omelets, cha (tea), coffee, and an interesting assortment of juices. And then headed to the hospital for another full day of cleft lip and palate surgeries.

Throughout the day, our CSI Team has had endless opportunities to bond with the hospital staff, surgical patients, and their families.

On our way home from the hospital, instead of the usual walk or van ride, some of our staff decided to take a tour of Rangpur via rickshaw.

Tomorrow is the last day of surgery, and will be one of the busiest yet. After surgery we will quickly pack up, have a celebration with the hospital staff and prepare to return to Dhaka the following morning.

We woke up bright and early this morning, and found ourselves in the Nationwide section of the Rangpur newspaper!

Then we were off to the hospital to begin our day.  All week we have been working on the 5th floor of the Rangpur Community Medical College Hospical, where we were able to have pre-op, two OR rooms, storage, post-op, PACU, and the ward all in one area for our convenience.

As our day began, Nurse Dody continued her CPR class for the local nurses and staff, who completed their training.

Dr. Tim, Dr. Andrew, and Dr. Raj continued surgeries today, completing 7 operations including a mix of cleft lips, palates, and one facial cleft. Everyone was excited as local surgeons began successfully performing surgeries of their own.

On the ward, the floor nurses and pediatricians held a discharge meeting with all of the parents of the children ready to head home. They answered questions and addressed any concerns the parents had, and also explained medications and proper home care to ensure the comfort of the kids.

Exhausted from a long day, we returned from the hospital, had a delicious dinner, and fell quickly asleep.