I’m in my hotel room at the Liberator here in Loja, Ecuador. The flight here was 2 hours late, but it really didn’t make any difference. Cora and Nelson Samaniego, Interplast’s hosts in Loja, were at the airport to pick me up and take me to the site. I experienced an absolutely hair-raising ride from the airport over a mountain pass with near misses of big slow moving buses and oncoming cars. The Samaneigos were completely unconcerned. They described their ambitious goals for my visit: to help promote the idea of a regional burn unit that could cover the entire district of Loja as well as Northern Peru; to teach; and to do some needed surgery if there was time.
Nelson and Cora (and their daughter Stephanie) then took me to a soccer game. The local Loja team was up against a more powerful rival from Guayaquil and trounced them 4-0. There was tremendous exuberance in the stadium, with many people wearing the local colors, including Nelson.
We followed this with dinner at the new KFC restaurant (been there for about 4 months- I guess a sign that Loja is advancing economically!) and then did a tour of the new burn unit, still under construction.
It was an eye-opener for sure. They had two nurses looking after seven patients; four children and three adults. Three of them are from one family and share one room. Among them is a severely burned young boy of about five-years old who is probably going to die soon (he has burns on over 80 percent of his body, including deep face burns). He is lying on a bed with a wood crate over top of him that is covered with blankets. There is a gooseneck lamp inside the crate to try to keep him a little warm. He is slathered with flamazine, and has a foley and an IV. He seems to be unconscious, which is probably a good thing.
Nelson and Cora (and their daughter Stephanie) then took me to a soccer game. The local Loja team was up against a more powerful rival from Guayaquil and trounced them 4-0. There was tremendous exuberance in the stadium, with many people wearing the local colors, including Nelson.
We followed this with dinner at the new KFC restaurant (been there for about 4 months- I guess a sign that Loja is advancing economically!) and then did a tour of the new burn unit, still under construction.
It was an eye-opener for sure. They had two nurses looking after seven patients; four children and three adults. Three of them are from one family and share one room. Among them is a severely burned young boy of about five-years old who is probably going to die soon (he has burns on over 80 percent of his body, including deep face burns). He is lying on a bed with a wood crate over top of him that is covered with blankets. There is a gooseneck lamp inside the crate to try to keep him a little warm. He is slathered with flamazine, and has a foley and an IV. He seems to be unconscious, which is probably a good thing.
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