Parents and relatives huddled near the entrance to the surgery while their children were on the operating tables. Mothers were brought into the recovery room as soon as possible after surgery to be reunited with their infants. They remained pensive even at this point.

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Mom and child wait for the nurse to take the baby into the operating room.

 

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After two hours of surgery mother and child are reunited in the recovery room. Baby has a new quilt, a creation and gift from Rotary Clubs in the U.S. and Canada.

Our team began to sort itself into basic tasks, Kate Wetterstrand and Gene Davenport assisted with the pre-op ward where patients scheduled for surgery on the current day wait. They bring the patients to surgery when it is time and then escort them to the post-operation ward after they are cleared in the recovery room.

Blogger-photographer Rod McAulay worked to assure that all files had photos of patients. And record keeper Kimberly  Vellekamp set up her “office” in the post-op recovery room. She kept files and schedules updated revising continuously as circumstances changed.

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Quartermaster Peter Vajk and Photo-Journalist Rod McAulay in scrubs in the operating suite.

In the surgeries the anesthesiologists and surgeons supported by OR nurses worked their miracles. (We will say more about them in coming days.) They were also supported by the local OR nursing and medical staff.

Neal Bordenave ran the autoclave, sterilizing surgical instruments throughout the day. And Pete Vajk, as Quartermaster, assured that everyone had sufficient equipment and supplies, from surgical packs and thermometers to hand soap and clothes hangers. Late in the day he boarded a tuk-tuk taxi with our Dentist R. K. Chetty (who speaks the local dialect) and made a run to the local store for necessary supplies.

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Neal Bordenave runs the autoclave, sterilizing all the surgical instruments.

Most of the people in this region of India speak Kannada, not Hindi or English. The medical interns, however, did have some English and could function as translators, along with members of the Rotary Club of Bangalore North who were multi-lingual. Indian children in the school system learn three languages; English, Hindi, and their local state language. Many, of course, speak only the local language.