Surgery and Healing in the Developing World - Dartmouth-Hitchcock

To My Son, the Urologist
Figure 6. Overcrowded ward spills into hallway.
• What is the cost, if any, for room and board?
• Will I have access to e-mail? the Internet?
• Am I permitted to bring a satellite phone into the country?
Hospital:
• What individuals comprise the hospital staff?
• How many beds/patients? operating rooms? (Two patients per bed
happens not to be unusual.)
• What are anesthesia capabilities? Are pulse oximeters available?
• Where and how are immediately postoperative patients monitored?
• Does the hospital have a back-up generator?
• Should I bring my own scrub uniforms?
• Is there a blood bank or transfusion capability?
• What tests does the laboratory perform?
• Can radiology provide the X-rays I need?
• What drugs typically appear in the formulary?
• Are translators readily available?
• Are there equipment and/or supplies I need to bring? (Do NOT assume
the presence of materials critical to the satisfactory performance
of your surgery. The urologist needs to inquire about suture, a chip
evacuator, commonly available medications, JJ stents, grasping forceps,
lubricating jelly, sterilization technique for endoscopes, availability
of water for irrigation, irrigation tubing and specifications of
the electrosurgical unit. On one compound we irrigated with filtered
and boiled river water, sterilized scopes in a dilute iodine solution and
kept a wary eye on a power source with wildly fluctuating current.)
• Are needles/syringes reused?
• Is it possible for the career surgeon(s) to make space on the operating
schedule for the visiting surgeon?
• For teaching, is a slide/overhead projector available?
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