Dhaka, Bangladesh Surgical Volunteer Trip

First Surgery Day

This morning we were all excited because we were finally going to begin surgery. After we set up the OR (Interplast Australia, who we have no affiliation with, had left some supplies and Shafquat located some supplies he had from a previous Interplast US trip), we all gathered in the OR with the local nurses and Shafquat’s residents. After Jon took the team through the emergency scenarios (what to do in case of a number of different emergency situations), Tony addressed the residents. He explained that one of them would be assigned to each patient, and they would be asked to present each case and eventually perform surgeries. They seemed eager to participate. What a great learning experience for them! There are four women residents this year.

What To Do Without Supplies

We had a team meeting to strategize about what we would need to perform surgery without the supplies that were stuck in customs. Tony estimated that he had about 20 cases that would only require local anesthesia; we could do about 10 of them the next day if the boxes did not show up. Shafquat joined us and each specialty asked him about the availability of certain supplies that were essential. Those items that he did not have, he made arrangements to purchase. Luckily, many team members had brought items in their personal luggage and everyone felt comfortable about going ahead with the planned scheduling of cases. We left Tony, Kiran and Dr. Jon Hooper, volunteer anesthesia chief, at the hospital to sketch out a schedule for the next two weeks. We grabbed taxis this time for transportation back to the hotel—about $1.50 a ride.