Many of the people traveling to St Joseph’s Hospital have traveled several hours by multiple shared taxi rides, buses or on foot. With rain, this can add an extra hour because of traffic or flooded roads. Despite these long and arduous journeys we never heard one person complain – that is the nature of the Liberian people – so friendly, patient and accepting. To help people get to and from the hospital the local Rotary clubs had also set up a fund to pay for patient transportation which meant the difference for some patients of being able to come to the hospital to be assessed or return for surgery.

The patient’s day starts on one of the wards were they are prepared for theater – nil by mouth, patient surgical gown etc. When the time comes they are transported down to the pre-op area by the patient transporter – on this mission this was Jim Bradley and in the picture below you can see Jim getting ready to take Elijah from the ward to pre-op area.

Once in the pre-op area, they have to wait, sometimes for 3 or more hours before being taken into the Operating Room (OR). During this time it is the job of the recreation therapist to entertain them and stop the patients and parents from getting too anxious about what lies ahead. The photo below shows Judy Bucko doing a fantastic job of keeping everyone calm and relaxed. I have also added a couple of pictures of some of our adorable patients …

From the pre-op room, they go into the OR under the care of the surgical team. Below is the surgical team in action, watched over by Lois Borie OR Nurse.

In addition to the Rotaplast surgical team, we are supported by the local OR nursing and technician team.

Once the operation is finished and the patient has woken from the anesthetic they are transferred to the PACU where they are carefully monitored by Merewyn and Dennis. Dennis Kneeppel can be seen below waiting for a post-op patient.

Merewyn can be seen comforting a patient who is getting ready to leave the PACU and return to the ward.

It is a long day for the patients but from the smiles of the patients and family members is all worthwhile.

Another great day

Mark