Preparations: March 1, 2012

We will leave in 2 days for another visit to JFK Hospital. The team this time includes 2 Waterbury Hospital residents ( Dr. Diego Holguin and Dr. John Dussel ), and Dr. Santiago Arruffat. Readers will remember that Santiago is a former resident at Waterbury Hospital who is now a colo-rectal surgeon in Evansville, IN; he came with us to JFK last March, and then decided that he wanted to come again. I am thrilled to have him with us because he an a superior surgeon as well as a great friend. And I am pleased that Adamah (Dr. James Sirleaf) is traveling with us, and will be in Monrovia for most of the time that we are there.
One of the wonderful aspects of this work is the number of people who go out of their way to help us find and collect supplies to bring. At Waterbury Hospital, we are fortunate in having people like Mary and Tanya, who organize supplies for the OR, helping us by saving material that might have otherwise been discarded; Peter in the OR; Giovanni and Jeff in Central Sterile Supply; and a host of others. Dr. Chris Michos, Chair of the Emergency Department, offered us an older ultrasound machine that they no longer needed. I think the people at JFK will love having another ultrasound machine, so I immediately accepted his offer.
We bring all of these supplies with us, mostly because it is unlikely that they would get to JFK if we shipped them separately. On a previous trip, I was fortunate to meet a senior executive of Delta; I found his business card last week, and emailed him asking if it would be possible for Delta to waive charges for excess baggage for us since we were bringing donated medical supplies. Yesterday I received an e-mail indicating that they would, so here's a big shout out to Delta for making a huge contribution to our efforts ! Thank you Delta!
So now the question is: how would you bring an ultrasound machine with you on the plane to Monrovia? The dimensions of the machine are 13"wide X 14" tall X 17" deep; it weighs maybe 30 pounds. My initial thought was to bring it on board as cabin baggage, but I'm not sure the TSA would like that. So then the question was how to bring it as baggage, and protect it from damage as it is a fairly sensitive piece of electronic equipment. My solution was to go to Sports Authority with my tape measure, and to find a wheeled cooler into which the ultrasound machine would fit ! I found it, and I have packed it up, and now I sure hope it all works out ! I will post a picture of it later.
Final preparations tomorrow, and then we leave at noon on Saturday. We will fly to Atlanta to meet Santiago, and then on to Accra and Monrovia !