Samoa
Trip - 2005
12/11/2005
– 26/11/2005
By
Richard Kjar – STRYKER/OUTREACH TRAVELLING
FELLOWSHIP
MEMBERS
Wayne Viglione - ORTHOPAEDIC
SURGEON
Danny O’Keefe - ORTHOPAEDIC
SURGEON
Rod Green - ANAESETIST
Richard Ibarra - SCRUB NURSE
Richard Kjar - ORTHOPAEDIC
REGISTRAR
Robyn Kildey - CHIEF
ORGANISER
Kathy O’Keefe - NURSE
STATISTICS
Saw 90 patients
Performed
28 operations
TRIP
REPORT
The
Orthopaedic Outreach trip to Samoa proved to be a learning experience
for all those involved. Independent Samoa consists of 2 main islands,
with a population of 177,000 people. Located approximately halfway between
Melbourne and Los Angeles, it is just south of the equator. The capital,
Apia, is the home for the National Hospital, and the destination for the
Outreach team.
Half the team, (Danny, Kathy, Richard K and Robyn) arrived early Sunday morning. A sleep in and a tour of the Southern half of the island occupied the remainder of Sunday, a day Samoans dedicate to church and family.
Monday saw our arrival at the hospital and a harsh dose of reality. The Samoan medical staff had been on strike for the last 3 months (over pay and conditions. Very basic emergency services being maintained by 2 Chinese and 2 Indian doctors paid for by their respective governments as part of an ongoing aid program. Emergency orthopaedics was being performed by a local surgeon (with no specific orthopaedic training) for life or limb threatening injuries only.
With no Orthopaedic clinic for the last 8 weeks, things were in some disarray to begin with, but Robyn got the media whirlwind going, with appearances in the local paper and local TV within the first couple of days of our arrival. Battling our way through the first clinic, Danny and I saw an amazing array of pathology, including many conditions that neither of use had ever seen before. Difficulties with language were overcome with help from nursing and physiotherapy staff. We visited the ward and were confronted with a number of cases of gross osteomyelitis and various fractures.
Clinics continued
the following day and late that evening the rest of the team arrived.
The next day we commenced operating and came to realise the magnitude
of the difficulties the staff there had to confront. After Rod, our anaesthetist,
willed the Halothane vaporiser to work with a mallet, we commenced operating.
As our equipment had not yet cleared customs, we used their equipment.
The power drill from the hardware shop and a incomplete small fragment
set that consisted entirely of recycled metalware opened our eyes.
PROJECTS
Bali Training
Program
Cook Islands
East Timor Project
West Timor Report
Fiji
- Labasa
Fiji
- Lautoka
Fiji
- Suva
Fiji
- Suva and Lautoka
Kiribati
Papua New Guinea
Samoa Trip—2005
Solomon Islands
Tongan Footclub
Program - 2005
Tongan Footclub Program - 2007
Tuvalu
Vanuatu
