Seeing him in action

Tuesday I had the opportunity to go down and watch Jason do surgery! The crazy thing is in 3 years of residency I have never seen him working. It was so fun to go down and see him work. He was between cases so he gave me a tour of the hospital. I got to see the baby with the feeding tube. She was so tiny and cute. Everywhere we went patients smiled at Jason and said bonjour doctor. It was just great to see all the things I heard him talk about and really see how the hospital runs. There is a pediatric ward, maternity, surgery,and medicine. There are 2 American surgeons, 1 pediatrician who also functions as the Ob, and 1 family medicine doctor. The load on the family doctor in particular was daunting. The patients all have family members that take care of them while there here. Because of this there were people everywhere sleeping on benches or even on a mat on the ground. One of Jason's patients was actually scrubbing her hospital bed! There is a cooking area for patients and families were they cook over wood fires. No complaining about the food here, everyone is just grateful to have medical care.




We headed back to the OR and Jason prepared for the surgery. I was so struck by how primitive everything was. I guess because they have a residency I expected things to be more like a hospital in the states. The operating rooms are tiny. There are no scrub techs, the doctors get out their own instruments and prepare everything themselves. In the states most things used in surgery are thrown out after one use, here everything that can be is sterilized and reused. Because of this the sheet on the table and the linens used in surgery are all bloodstained. The only people in the room during surgery was Jason, a resident, and the anaesthesia nurse. No scrub techs, no circulators, no anaesthesiologist, no attending surgeon. All the anaesthesia people are trained African nurses. It is really amazing what they train nurses to do. They have a nurse here that does hernia operations. We also met a man who trained at the nursing school here then went to Congo and was trained to do eye surgery.Yes I said a nurse and yes I do mean surgery with nothing more than nursing training and some specific training by doctors. We have heard of this happening all over Africa. There is just so much need and to take the time and money to send enough people to medical school then residency to fill the void would just be impossible. That's what makes PAACS so amazing. They are training highly qualified surgeons to love God and then go home and replicate themselves through the same methods. It is exciting to think of all the potential good represented by these 5 men.


The surgery was a removal of testicles to help treat prostate cancer. I donned hat and mask and watched as the Jason made the incision. It has been a long time since I've been in a medical setting and especially in an operating room and it was great to be there with my husband. I hope to be able to give C. a little tour before we go so he can actually see where daddy works.