Winter is coming

With CPAP training beginning next week, things have been picking up here. It was also the first week I actually believed it was winter here. We had a couple of very rainy, cold, and muddy days, but I think it was a false alarm because the sun is already back out today! I really hope it lasts. With no heating or a/c system (and lots of open windows), it is always the same temperature in the hospital as it is outside, except in the nurseries where they have radiant heaters to help keep the babies warm. The rain also makes it a lot harder to hand wash and hang dry your clothes! I can only imagine what it’s like during the rainy season.

Yesterday Ariel and I spent some time doing the regular data collection and entry as well as helping to make some stockinette hats for the CPAP patients over at Chatinka. They are surprisingly simple to make! We officially put the new Pumani bCPAPs out on the wards and distributed the new supplies which was super exciting. The med students are also done with their schooling, so I am interested to see how things are different with all of them gone. There are so many of them and so few doctors that they seem to do a lot of the day to day monitoring of all of the patients.

Our presentation of technologies went very well this morning. A couple of people told us afterwards that it was good. We were hoping that we could get a lot of different opinions by presenting each of our technologies in a group setting at the Pediatric department morning handover meeting. We unfortunately did not get as much feedback as I would have like, but we will continue meeting with doctors and nurses individually to try and get more suggestions and advice. On the bright side, they hardly had any criticisms for us. I had braced myself for the worse and was prepared for lots of tough questions. One interesting point that was raised was the issue of people stealing power cords and batteries. They really liked the idea of the ASAP monitor made by the Spygmo team this year, especially the fact that it runs off of rechargeable solar batteries. However, we learned that people often steal the power cords and batteries to various machines (the copper wires are valuable even if the cord itself is not). They suggested putting the batteries inside the device and making it so that a clinician has to use a specific key to open the device and remove the batteries. Another issue that came up while talking about the manual breast pumps was the fact that there is little screening done for Hepatitis B, so that would need to be addressed in order for babies to receive donated breast milk or for mothers to share the breast pumps. Some ideas for new technologies included a peak flow meter for asthma patients and a more durable blood pressure bladder. Pelham also introduced the new Pumani bCPAP and overall, I’d say it was a very successful presentation.

Other than that, we are just preparing for CPAP training to begin by reviewing the training materials. The training video is not quite done yet, but already looks really great! I think the Queens nurses will really get a kick out of seeing themselves on camera. Whenever we take pictures here, and then show people the image they are always extremely amused and usually laugh at it. Tomorrow will be an eventful day as Ariel and I will get to see an orthopedic surgery over at Cure Hospital tomorrow! I have no idea what I am in for, but I’m sure it will be really interesting. I’m hoping it’s not a total hip replacement. We will also be off to Lilongwe tomorrow with Jocelyn.