Month 2-part 2

So as promised, I am going to talk about some of the fixes we made in our hospitals. The blog is going to be technical and thus you can skip this blog if you start getting bored.

In addition to working in our hospitals we also worked in FAME clinic, an initiative by California based doctor who has been running the clinic for the part 10 years. The environment in FAME is a contrast to that in KLH. With better and high-end technology devices in use, we got to work on some of more technical devices while we were at FAME. And not to forget the food, we had a treat!!

 The FAME corridor

Lunch at FAME

So in the first week at KLH, after we finished carrying out an inventory we got around 10 devices that  needed fixes. Some of their were pretty simple while some needed thinking and deeper digging. Amongst the devices that I fixed, the oxygen concentrator was the easiest one. The part in the jar that screws in was broken and thus due to loose connection the oxygen couldn't enter the jar. I just called up my friend from another hospital and asked her if I could use the jar from the scavenged oxygen concentrator from her hospital. She agreed and there it was! My first fix and I was really happy. The other fix that was a little tougher was a suction pump, that I had to open and clean the motor and lubricate it. But after that it was working fine and had an awesome suction.

The fixed suction pumps

I also fixed two more suction pumps in KLH and one in FAME. Overall we fixed some stethoscopes, spygnomanometer, some remotes, beds, replaced tube lights in the wards. As I already mentioned, we got to work with different devices in FAME. We repaired a haemoglobin tester and complete monitoring system. This were really easy fixes as we had to find the manual, look for some troubleshooting guidelines and follow them. While I was in FAME, I was given a MAC to repair with all the instructions on how to do it. It was out of my comfort zone and I couldn't repair it, yet I was proud that I could open it and now I am confident enough to open my own MAC.

The Fixed aspirator at FAME clinic

Overall we had around 25-30 fixes as a group, however, not everything we touched worked. Some of the devices were extremely difficult to be fixed, in spite of spending hours we couldn't fix them, as we failed to discover what the problem was. One of these devices was the ultrasound machine. We looked at in the first week with our coordinator, realized that it had two blown fuses. However, the major challenge was that they were slow-blow and our coordinator only had fast-blow. We thought of trying the fast blow and the device worked the first time we turned it ON, but stopped working when we turned it ON for the second time only to discover that the fuses had blown again. We thought of using the slow blow, but could't as we didn't have any. We waited till we got the slow blow, that wasn't until the last week, and to our disappointment it didn't work and we couldn't figure out why, so we had to abandon it.

Other devices could not be fixed as it was very difficult to find the parts. One of them was the isolation chamber. After following the troubleshooting guidelines by the company, we realized that the problem was the SMPS(switching mode power supply), it was difficult to find it as it had a single input but dual output, usually the ones used as laptop chargers have single input single output. We looked everywhere in Arusha but couldn't find the part. I mailed the company with no success as they haven't replied yet. So that was our second major abandoned device.

However, the toughest and most challenging part for me in the second month was completing the ten needs interview form I was asked to do for my financial aid. Finding doctors was a problem, but the worse was communicating with them and getting answers to the questions that the form asked for. I somehow completed the ten forms in 3 weeks and had to dedicate a lot of time finishing the post interview form.

It is through one of this interview we decided the topic for our secondary project as one of the doctor mentioned the problem. He said that the mattresses don't last long as all the liquids like water, blood soaks into them and makes them soggy and hence they have to throw it away. So we thought of covering them with some water proof material. We bought some materials and thought of putting it on the mattresses using a rope. However, the hospital already had a budget for stitching the material so we  gave away the right size cut material to the hospital matron. We also donated some masai blankets to the hospital as they needed some for the patients.  

The almost ready mattress with the material

Overall I would say that this experience was quite enlightening for me. I realized my strengths and my weaknesses and boosted my shortcomings. I wouldn't say that the experience had all good moments, sometimes I had difficult ones and had to adjust a lot to work out of my comfort zone. But then it was the mixture of this difficult and happy moments that made this experience worth to be lived for.

Necklaces and bracelets made by Arjun for us

Month 2 - part1

I know guys I haven't updated since a month and believe it or not, I blame it on the excellent internet connection I got back in Karatu!! ( if you didn't realize I was being sarcastic!). So I thought its better to update you all, once I get out from the city. And so, as one month is a long period, the blog ought to be long ( so I am dividing it not two parts).

Or hospital entrance

So after spending a wonderful weekend, we returned to Karatu all ready and excited to start out work on Monday. I got up at 6 and had a quick breakfast, getting ready by 7. We left the house with our roommates, who are 2 swiss girls working in the same hospital as ours as medical students. The shuttle picked us up at 7.10 and believe it or nor we cramped about 20 people in a vehicle with capacity of maybe 12-15 people. The road to the hospital was so bumpy that sometimes I thought, the vehicle would disassemble by the time we reached the hospital, I kinda enjoyed it though!! At 7.30, we would visit the church and attend the prayers for about 30 minutes, did not understand anything, but we knew it was important as it was important for the hospital staff. So we never missed church for the whole month, I mean the four weeks we were there in the hospital. 

The morning church

After the church, we attended the hospital meeting where they usually discussed about the admitted patients and what measures were taken. That was also attended everyday by us for obvious reasons. In some of the meetings, we announced the fixes we made so that the entire hospital was aware of them and they could put the devices to proper use. They were really happy with them and always mentioned how grateful they were with all the repairs.

The morning staff meeting (the doctor in-charge with our fixed suction pumps)

We usually started our work at about 8.30 am or 9 am depending on when the hospital meeting ended. The first day in the hospital, we just went around the hospital, meeting the staff and looking around for the equipments in use or jut lying around, in technical terms carrying out an inventory. We introduced ourselves in basic Swahili. After doing that we got some devices that were not working to our workshop. Oh ya! forget to mention about our workshop, we have our own workshop close to the hospital, where we work with the hospital technician, Augustino Panga, who is experienced and trained in electrical engineering.

 The outside of our workshop

Our worktable in the workshop

At about 10 am we went for a chai break for about 15 minutes to have some delicious donuts or vitumbua( a local sweet) and refresh ourselves with a cup of tea. After that, we continued our work.

I would usually go looking for doctors to fill up the ten needs finding form I had fill up to get my financial aid. At around 12.30-1 we go for lunch, which was wali, maharage (rice and beans) for all the days we were in hospital and sometimes I ordered roasted nyama wa ngombe (roasted beef). After spending about 45 minutes for the lunch we returned to our workshop to continue working and kept working till about 4 pm when the last shuttle left for the town. Why was taking the shuttle so important? Because otherwise it took about 45 minutes to 1 hour to walk to the hospital( we know that because we tried it on one day when there was public holiday and the shuttle wasn't working.) From there we would usually visit the market, either to buy something for dinner or to buy supplies to fix devices, then we would head home.

The canteen

After we came back, we did some of our personal work like entering the inventory in the laptop or completing the remaining needs finding form (pun intended). Around 6 we would start cooking and the menu would be the same for a week, like mondays would be scrambled eggs, tuesdays maggi ( Indian noodles), wednesday pasta and guacamole, thursdays would be omelets. Why didn't I talk about the weekends? Because we usually would not be in Karatu(usually all the groups would meet up and spend the weekends together) and thus would eat outside in the restaurants.

Arjun multitasking (cooking and dancing)

During dinner we would watch some episodes of modern family together and then around 9-9.30 we would go to our individuals rooms and call it a day!! This was our daily routine all the week for four weeks, nothing different except that, our personal work would change. The updates about what we fixed and our secondary project would be continued in my next blog.

We watching Modern family

Ohh btw did you realize that everything in the pictures is red? That is because Karatu is covered with red soil and as a souvenir from Karatu, my shoes are red till I wash them!