#8 Thursday 8/22: First day at the Helena Goldie Hospital

Hola everyone! So today was our first day at the Helena Goldie Hospital at Munda. It was quite the experience. So this is a small regional Hospital and cares for roughly 33k people on the island of New Georgia. They have been plagued with doctor shortages nursing shortages and of course equipment and consumable shortages. A lot of their critically ill patients they can't handle so they send to Gizo Hospital which is on a small island about an hour and a half boat ride from Munda. What's crazy is they will get some amazing equipment and supplies but no one knows how to set it up or run it. They were given this amazing super fast skiff to transport their patients however they don't have a boat ramp by their pier to launch it! So they use banana boats which takes twice the time and isn't as safe or reliable. Back in 2018 sone Swiss dropped off an entire mobile OR, but they don't have the power to feed it nor do the plugs that match up so it has sit there unused since then. 

What was really cool though is they just got a massive wooden boxes from Japan. They said they're not sure exactly what is in them but they were told it was an ultrasound machine.  This arrived 2 days ago. When I heard ultrasound machine my ears perked up because that is my wheelhouse. So I had they guys crack open all the boxes. In there was this super fancy high tech ultrasound machine made by a company I speak for! So I spent the entire day setting it up and testing it. The next few days  I am going to train and retrain the 2 doctors, one rad tech, and an OB nurse/ kind of midwife/ kind of just someone who knows how to deliver babies how to use this in various capacities. This will greatly expand their capabilities as a hospital to diagnosis issues. What's crazy is the Japanese sent it without any help on how to assemble it or use it. They were going to spend thousands of dollars to send someone to learn how to use it and and another to set it up.  Now they don't have to. The other really cool thing that happened was they received a new AED and a defibrillator but they don't know how to use it or how to implement protocols on how to utilize them. Again my wheelhouse, because I defibrillate patients all the time. We're going to train them on how to use them and implement protocols on their utilization. 

They other big issue is they are doing a ton of renovation and so no OR and most other clinical places so they have me taking care of the general ward patients and diabetic foot ulcers etc. They closed the nursing school down and moved all the patients into the nursing school buildings. It weird because some of the hospital capabilities are in the other hospital buildings like lab and radiology and pharmacy. It's crazy. I'll show pictures below. Another issue is because of all the beetle-nut they chew there is a ton of oral.cancer. The problem is they can't do anything for them. It isn't uncommon for them to see it and diagnose it, and the patient is dead 2 weeks later. Tuberculosis is rampant here as well. But they have to send all those patients to Gizo because the hospital is under so much renovation. Be grateful for what you all have people! America is the promised land! And all those Americans that are America haters can all go to 🤬! Our problems pail in comparison to these people and millions like them throughout the world. 

Enjoy the pictures. Stay tuned for more updates!

Thanks for coming on this adventure with LTC Teames. Until next time!

Morning in Munda before breakfast

I was eating and these guys come floating by in a wooden carved canoe (very common here) just cruising by.  There was another one later, and he was bailing water the while time.

Fish everywhere. I was spitting my watermelon seeds in there and they went crazy

My breakfast of fresh fruit.

I named them all...

This is CPT Escobar our dentist on this trip. She brought a ton of dental supplies with her and packed it all in. We had to walk about a mile and a half to the hospital. She wanted to do her PT in the morning. We were drenched in sweat when we arrived. Soooo humid

Our walk through the jungle to the hospital

I thought this house was awesome!

This is what it looks like everywhere.

This was so funny. On our walk to the hospital I saw this hermit crab. He had removed himself from his nice big shell and put himself in this small bottle cap! Idiot communist crab! Do you see the little baby hermit crab next to it?  You still got time little fella.

Walking into the hospital/ old nursing school. The mobile OR is barely visible behind that silver truck in army green. The blue building on the left is maternity ward

This is the entirety of their emergency room.  This was the nursing students break room before.  Also in this building is the general medicine ward.

Riding back for lunch

This is the original main hospital. The OR is the building second from the left that's under renovation. The building in the far left is where I was all day building the ultrasound machine. It is also the pharmacy building.

The OR building

This is the dentist everything. They had just finished pulling a tooth on this lady. That's Dr Ray on the far right with the shagadelic scrub top. He runs the hospital and did his medical school training in Cuba. He never did a residency but did several years as a registrant in Honiara so basically he can do everything and nothing all at once. Amazing guy. The dentist is in the back.

This is the pediatric ward. We stopped off to say hello and I gave all the kids with teeth some gum that Shauna packed. I've got a whole bag of it and have been handing it out to kids all over the place. On our walk to the hospital we passed a dozen kids going to school. They all got bubble gum. Our dentist is so mad!! 🤣🤣

This is a small wireless ultrasound that pairs with that small tablet on the chair. That is all they have until....

Ta da!!! Their brand new ultrasound machine that I built for them today. It is as good of a machine as you will find in any level 1 hospital in the US. I'll be training them on how to use it over the next few days. So Dr Ray was so excited this worked out he wanted to name it. Because I built it he wanted me to name it and label it, so I gave it a good name. My own nick name "Rip"  after I named it I thought that might not go over well unless I put quotations around it otherwise they might think I'm calling it R.I.P or Rest In Peace 🤣🤣🤣

Notice the Rip label on the top.  He's so cute!

Thanks for coming on this adventure with LTC Teames. Until next time!