Vail Summit Orthopaedics Blog

9 August, 2012, Kigali, Rwanda

I have one more patient’s story that I would like to tell. I have returned to the capital city of Kigali, Patti and the rest of the Safari team are returning home to the USA tonight, and I left the Mugonero Hospital having been able to assist with 18 surgeries and hoping to help a young lady named Jacueline, now 16 years old.

While part of our team is still enjoying a well-deserved break at a safari camp in Kenya, several of the Global Health Initiatives team members traveled home from Rwanda over the last few days. The trip home was uneventful, if long, as our total travel time was close to 35 hours. During that time we had an opportunity to reflect on the work that was accomplished and can say, without reservation, that it was one of the most successful trips to Rwanda in the seven years that Global Health Initiatives has worked in country.

7-8 August, 2012, Mugonero Hospital, Western Province, Rwanda

I’ve now told you of Joseph’s story, and I would like to tell and show you another. I tell this story with the utmost respect for his privacy, and I am well aware that my Afrikan colleagues are now reading the very same blog that you are at home in the United States.  May it bring all of us a bit closer.

4  August, 2012, Mugonero Hospital, Western Province, Rwanda

Due to some fortunate circumstances, I have been offered the opportunity to return to the Mugonero Hospital to continue teaching and performing some surgeries with the local providers here.

The rest of our Centura Team has moved on today to return to the U.S. or to continue on to Safari at the Mara West in Kenya. While I already miss my wife, Patti, and my fellow team members, with all the amazing hard work and organization that they performed last week, they have left me in a very good situation to continue on here.  There are seven more surgeries scheduled for the next few days.

Rwanda Medical Missionary trip: Blog post No. 12      

Medical update:

Three surgeries were performed yesterday.

1.  Marcel – a three year old boy with a nine day old elbow fracture.

2.  Vedaste – a 35 year old male with a week old femur fracture.  Vedaste was transferred here on Monday from another hospital when they learned we were here.  His femur was fixed using a SIGN nail and no X-ray.

I have mentioned a young Rwandan boy named Joseph to some of you. His picture rests in the corner of one my exam rooms at the Frisco VSO office.  He is in a red hospital gown with his left arm in a sling, offering a handshake with his right hand, while holding some tissue paper in his left fingers.

Well, we are here and spent our first day at Muganero Hospital. 

On Saturday, many of us went to the Volcanoes  National Park to see the gorillas.  What an amazing experience that was!  We left for the park at 6:00am, got there at about 6:45am, and waited for the guides to separate us into groups of eight, whereupon we got into park vehicles and drove to various starting points. 

The Summit County medical missionary group in northern Rwanda providing relief to the area took a tour of the Volcanoes National Park to visit the gorillas who there. Here are some photos they captured during their visit.

Susan Zayas Gruber, CRNA, and a Virunga Mountin Gorilla, 28 July, 2012, Rwanda.

Earlier this week, the Centura team completed the first 2-day training session on the Ponseti casting method to correct club foot in children. The training began with introductions from Gian Piero Taricco, from the Centre de Chirurgie Orthopédique Pédiatrique et de Réhabilitation Ste Marie in Rilima, Rwanda; Dr. Peter Janes from Vail Summit Orthopedics;  and Dr. Emmanuel Nsengyimava, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon from The Centre. Following a video presentation on the Ponseti method, students from all over Rwanda were soon elbow deep in plaster, practicing the technique using models of club feet.

The packing of the anesthesia piece of the 2012 summer trip to Rwanda began for me during last year’s 2011 summer trip to Rwanda.  I took mental notes and digital pictures of the anesthesia medications and supplies the hospital in Mugonero had and made lists of what anesthesia medications and supplies I thought we should bring in 2012.