Anything is Possible At Juan Pablo

Who says chivalry is dead?

Early birds catch the worm! Today we beat the traffic and arrived to the Hospital Infantil de Juan Pablo II earlier than expected, ready for action! We were soon joined by more students from La Universidad Del Valle: Darwin, Monica, Andrea, Julio, Ennio, Alex, Christian, Yucely, Matias and Erick!

In the surgical room, Linus partnered with Christian, and Joanna paired with Darwin to work on the vacuum machines; Both groups managed to put the vacuums back into work.

Meredith and Lydia focused the day to get the lab microscope into focus! Unfortunately, they were not able to restore the automatic focusing feature after switching the objectives. Nonetheless, they figured out that alternating between oil and water-immersion objectives might cause this trouble, so hopefully it will be solved very soon.

Matias gets his blood pressure read

Bright smiles with blood pressure monitor

Cassie and Quinn formed a power group with Christian, Andrea, and Matias to calibrate the blood pressure monitor. Matias, who is healthy as a horse, constantly got a lower reading on his systolic pressure. The hospital technician, Señor Carlos, saved the team by bringing them essential calibration components. Matias finally got his healthy blood pressure reading!

VU in the gasket with Del Valle

Joe 'operating' on the gasket

Another instrument that was worked on today was one of the hospital's autoclaves. Dr. P had identified a worn gasket on her prior trip, so we came prepared with a replacement gasket and epoxy. The manufacturer of this autoclave discontinued this model, so Claire, Joe, and Linus worked alongside Erick and Julio to fit another brand's replacement gasket. This was accomplished by trimming it to the correct length and dimensions. Now we will just wait to see if the seal will hold in 24 hours, after the epoxy sets!

Team troubleshooting on the autoclave with Dr. P. 

Similarly, Alison and Ennio focused on fixing a different autoclave! With assistance from Dr. P and after several hours of investigating they were able to determine the problem with the temperature gauge. Unfortunately, the necessary part to completely fix the gauge was not readily available, further research needs to be carried out to solidify a diagnosis.
Ryan, Monica and Professor Adams worked on fixing a malfunctional microscope. The stage of the microscope was loose and had only unidirectional movement, as opposed to bidirectional movement. With meticulously hard work he was able to restore the proper function of the microscope.

In addition to working on her instructional anesthesia ventilation video, Lydia teamed with Alex to change light bulbs and filters on a laminar flow hood. Maintenance is essential to a healthy instrument!
Jasmine was assigned to fix two cracked EEG recorder pens that were held together only by tape. Unfortunately replacing the recorder pens was not an option, however, with a hot glue gun, a soldering iron and help from Darwin, they managed to seamlessly restore the recorder pens!
Upon asking Darwin about his volunteering experience, he shared, “All of you are very friendly. Good experience because my career does not have a lot of work in the hospital. The work you do here is different from what I do in my career.”

Sami, Yucely, Andrea, Erick and Julio rebuild the broken break!

Today’s Special Guest Blogger is Sami:

“Today I was assigned to fix a Zeiss S21 microscope stand with a broken foot brake. While it was fun and exciting to work together on the machine, we definitely had quite a few hurdles along the road. First we had to carefully maneuver the stand with microscope attached out of the OR by wrapping the microscope in blankets and scotch tape for protection. Next, we attempted to fix the broken foot brake by taking the stand apart, only to realize we could fix it by simply realigning one of the metal pieces without having to remove anything at all. Now, with our heightened confidence, we decided to try and mend the second foot brake, which was not broken, but was not functioning perfectly either. In the process of trying to improve the functionality, we actually broke it! We thought it may be as easy to fix as the first brake, but instead this created the real challenge of the day, and we spent hours brainstorming different ideas for how to fix it. In the end, we consulted a very knowledgeable mechanic who works at the hospital and helped us bend the metal brake in a strategic manner, ultimately allowing us to restore and improve the functionality of both foot brakes on the microscope stand.”




Special thank you to the staff of Hospital Infantil de Juan Pablo II:

Señorita Maricarmon Anguiano, Administrator

Señorita Mareela Figueroa, Assistant Administrator

Doctor Luis Arnoldo Zepeda, Hospital Director

Señor Carlos Ruiz, Hospital Technician

Señor Gersor Cabrerra , Hospital Technician

Doctor Lopez, Chief of Surgery

 

The pizza is as long as our table!