Surgery 15th July, 2014

Just as yesterday was a light clinic day because people who were used to getting free medical care had to pay for services, today was a light surgery day because people were not able or willing to pay for elective surgery.

We did have work to do and I hope the pictures from some of what we did will not bother anyone.

Part of what I am doing while here is to help Dr. Tim Cahill learn some procedures and help him get experience with others.

Since I have been here, I have done about 30 major operations and many minor procedures. So far I have done general surgery, urology, orthopedic, OB, and plastic surgery cases.

Today we did GI and plastic surgery.

Dr. Cahill performing EGD

First, we did an upper GI endoscopy looking for ulcers. This gentleman had been treated in the past for duodenal ulcer and we could not find any evidence of ulcer disease today.

Next, we did 3 skin grafts where one takes donor skin from one part of the body and covers a large defect elsewhere. Dr. Cahill had not done this before and so it was helpful to  do several in a row.

Young girl with large wound

Young man with even larger wound

Both patients had large skin defects from severe infection and both needed grafting to speed healing. These pictures show the wound before grafting.

The next pictures show the wounds after the graft has been harvested, meshed and attached to the raw surface of the wound.

Graft applied and stapled in place

Graft in place

A dressing was applied and we will check the graft in 3 days to see if it has been successful. Check back in 3-4 days and hopefully we will have some pictures of a good result.

After finishing in the operating room, I went to the guest house to eat lunch. The cook had prepared a Ghanaian dish for me and it was very good.

Rice balls and peanut soup

 



 

 

After lunch I went by our old house to check on how things looked. Elisabeth had planted a Baobob tree years ago when it was very small and I wanted to see how it had grown.

 

Elisabeth's baobob tree