Thursday, February 19, 2009

Salavan Hospital/ OR tour and Tat Lo 2/19/09

Sorry for the double photos in the last post. Cant figure out how to erase them.

On the 18th, we left Kon Sai village for Salavan after our Baasii via an uncles work van with chauffer (and with AC). It was a 3 hour bus ride down a super dusty and bumpy dirt road. Paved roads when we got there, thankfully! He is a professor in the town of Salavan and many people know him there. For those following this blog for the purpose of travel, we stayed at the Chindavon hotel for 80,000 kip (US $9) per night and it was worth every penny for the hot water and AC, good location, safety, etc. We didn’t do much that night but walk around the town and sleep like never before!

Uncle Somchitt’s wife is a nurse at the local hospital and knowing that we were in the field, she offered a tour and we jumped on it. As you might guess, it was quite primitive. While we were standing right there, a child passed from some unknown illness while he was being “bagged” with room air. There are no HIPPA rules here!lol! They were touring us right into areas with patients etc and wanting to take pictures with us, etc right in front of them, sometimes including them! The best part of the hospital tour, however, was when we were able to weasel our way into scrubs and into the OR with our camera! You will see in the pictures that everyone, including us, were wearing flip flops in the OR! You will also notice Roger’s scrubs are halfway up his shins! In here was a boy getting an open appendectomy under spinal. His total incision was about the size of a half dollar coin. If you can do that, why do 5 holes the size of a quarter? The anesthesiologist was very accommodating and showed us his equipment. He did have pulse ox and ekg but still manual cuff. Also, the draeger “machine” had no power functions and did not automatically ventilate. It was either spont breathing or hand bagging. The circuits are re –used and was crusty and cracked, undoubtedly with leaks and the “green” bag was brown from all of the hands touching it. ET tubes are also hard to come by and are cleaned and re used. Also, Halothane is the only option here. We took a few anesthesia records for souvenirs! We had a great time here! The director of the OR who gave us the tour was Seng’s 3rd cousin (we found out later)! The 2 new OR will be done in the next few months. It was an incredible experience today.

Afterwards we went to a town about 40 minutes from Salavan called Tat lo. It is right on the edge of the coffee making area of the Bolavan Plateau. Here there are many beautiful mountains, lush vegetation, and 3 significant waterfalls to see. Unfortunately, Tat Suong, the largest of the three waterfalls is dry at the moment d/t a reservoir built nearby. It is unclear if the dry waterfall is permanent. We would highly recommend anyone who would just happen to be swinging through, Salavan Laos, to stay in Tat Lo for a day or two to get away and relax. The scenery is stunning and the accommodations are plentiful and cheap, but nice. There are also some elephants to ride!

Tonight, we went by VIP bus to Pakse. Guess what? IT broke down and we had to wait on them to change a belt!!!!! We are finally here and will visit another uncle and do some touring tomorrow. Talk to you soon!!!!
Roger & Seng.





































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