We left NY(JFK) on Saturday night, arriving in Brussels on Sunday morning. When I say "we", I mean Dr. Rob Kimmel Sr, a plastic surgeon in PA, Dr. Michael Nowicki, one of our Chief residents at Waterbury Hospital, Dr. Dr. Rob Kimmel Jr, a PGY-3 surgery resident at Waterbury Hospital. I think it is very cool having a father-son combination as part of our team!! The other members have been delayed by bad weather in the Midwest, which cancelled the flight to Brussels for Dr. Santiago Arruffat, Samantha Shoultz, and Dr. Cindy Basinski, Santiago and Samantha will come a day later; Cindy is working on her arrangements.
In one of the coincidences in life that adds unexpected joy, or perhaps it is just the joy of the unexpected, we discovered that Dr. Aaron Gilson and his girlfriend Mia would be in the airport in Brussels at the some time we were there. Aaron graduated from the Waterbury Hospital Surgical Residency last year, and is now in Chattanooga doing a plastic surgery fellowship; he came to Liberia with us in 2017. He and Mia were on their way to visit friends in Rotterdam; it was fun to spend an hour or two with them.
We finally arrived at our hotel in Monrovia at 10pm; after some food, and Club beers, we all went to bed. Mike Nowicki was the only one who got up on time this morning; I was in a deep sleep when he knocked on my door at 8:15 !
We went to JFK Hospital, and had a wonderful morning seeing old friends and meeting some new ones. We brought 6 duffel bags of supplies to the Operating Theater (OT) at 9am; when we went back there at 2 pm, Ama had all the bags unpacked with the supplies organized and on shelves in cabinets. She is is nurse manager of the OT, and she is awesome, and fantastic, and organized, and wonderful !
We met up with the surgical staff and trainees, including Dr. Gbozee. After Grand Rounds, we went to the Out-Patient Clinic (OPD) with Dr. Gbozee and Dr. Clark where we saw a number of patients with an astonishing variety of problems. By the time we were done in OPD we had pretty much filled up our operating schedule for the rest of this week with a variety of interesting clinical problems. Having Dr. Kimmel Sr here is definitely a wonderful thing, and I know he will be busy.
Adamah arrived in the middle of the night, and came to the hospital to be with us for much of the day. We came back to the hotel around 4 pm; we had decided yesterday that today would be a day to scope things out, and organize, but not operate. After a nap we had dinner, and then Santiago and Sam arrived for a glorious reunion. Tomorrow we will start operating. I love being here.
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