Day 1

Today, we got to the hospital around 8:00am and finished organizing everything. We got off around 8:30pm and went to a fancy dinner at The Louisiana Kitchen (AKA Popeyes). And then I had my first Dairy Queen experience which was nice. Also happy late Father’s Day dad!!

One of the things I’ve noticed so far that’s different than the US is that the patients come in usually the night before to get prepped for surgery. The first patient was a one year old little girl with a balanced partial AVSD (atrial ventricular septal defect) with a large inlet VSD (ventricular septal defect). They took her in about 12:30 and she returned from surgery around 7:30pm.

They are not only performing open heart surgeries, but they are also doing cardiac caths. Caths are either diagnostic (looking for pressure changes, blood flow changes etc) or interventional (inserting a stent or a dilation balloon etc.)

Throughout the day my job was to just play with the kids, make them feel better, and comfort them. All of the doctors and nurses on this trip are so helpful and always explain everything if we ask questions.

At one point I was able to go to the NICU with Dr. Isaac to perform two echocardiograms. Echos are basically “fancy ultrasounds” of the heart. They are a diagnostic tool that look closer at the heart itself, along with the blood flow through it, and detect any effusions, VSD, AVSD, and double outlets of the right ventricle (DORV). Basically DORV is when one ventricle pumps out the blood and the other ventricle is defective. I was in heaven because I got to hold a baby for an hour and a half, and even though my shirt became a dark blue color because the AC was out, it was worth it.

She was 14 days old and I held her during the echo.

Then NICU was literally across the street, so we had to push it there. The looks we received when we were crossing the crosswalk were hilarious so I had to snap a picture.

This is the pre-OP room