Workmanship
Written by Antje on October 28th 2016 21:00
This time I will begin with a homelike scene in our ‘sterilization department’. It is room where we have tea, but also where various instruments and other necessities, such as surgical gowns, are packaged to be sterilized in the autoclave. In the pictures below you see how sterile gauze is being prepared. Large pieces with about 10 layers of gauze fabric are being cut to the right size. Afterwards these bandages are folded by hand and sterilized in varying packages to be used throughout the hospital. In more extended surgery we prefer not to use these bandages because they have no leaded thread and would not be visible on X-rays if something should be left in the wound. In that case we use larger bandages of about 30x30cm with several layers sewn together which you don’t lose track of very easily.
My work as a surgeon can be challenging. There are success stories of patients that recover well after an operation. I am fairly confident that the patients would not have survived without an operation. But there are more difficult things. This week a child died the night after a big operation. Even with intensive care after the operation the child did not get better. It is frustrating and difficult to loose a child without knowing why. Especially because it is difficult to learn from the situation.
Recently I attended a girl’s first birthday party. She is the daughter of 2 of our doctors and the first birthday is always a large party. In this case a party tent was set up, the minister was asked to pray for the child and there was a gigantic birthday cake. On the one hand it is always good to see how the first year of the child’s life is celebrated, but on the other hand it is strange to have such a big party for a child that will not remember anything about it.
