April 6

 This morning JFK has a real crazy busy schedule going in the Operating Suite! As I write this, at the far end of the hall Santiago is working with Liberians doing endoscopy; in another room Sepehr is repairing an incarcerated hernia with Yuk; in another room Becca worked with Dr. Kokulo to repair an incarcerated hernia in an 11 yr old boy; and in another room Dr. Doe is evacuating an epidural hematoma. Dr. Gbozee had some orthopedic cases to do today, but with the crowded situation up here, he decided to do them in the new mini-OR built downstairs next to the newly renovated trauma ward and ICU. The multitude of surgeries and surgeons reflects the progress that has been made at JFK over the past decade, and I feel privileged to have been here to see it. There are still many problems to overcome, but there is movement forward. An aspect that occurred to me is that with the increased number of trained surgeons, there is a pressing need to increase the capacity of the Operating Suite. There are several operating rooms being used for storage now; they will need to be outfitted and converted to active rooms, more staff will need to be trained, etc. Meanwhile, other cases today included removal of a large polyploid growth from the lower back of an older woman by Dr. Kokulo and Becca, and a laparotomy by Sepehr and Yuk and  2 of the Liberian residents on a young man who was shot the previous night. He was stable and it appeared his injuries wouldn’t be too bad, but they found he had a hole in his small bowel and one in his transverse colon. Possession of firearms by private citizens is supposed to be illegal in Liberia, but there appears to be increasing availability of weapons. That seems like a dangerous trend in this country still recovering from the violence of a long civil war. We went back to the hotel and were joined for dinner by Adamah and Masmina. It was a good time!