Hello again! Today was day two working in Hospital Infantil de Juan Pablo. Once more, we worked with the del Valle students to wrap up our work in Guatemala City. Although not all devices could be fixed, we made terrific progress in restoring several machines and were also able to provide the hospital with a thorough digital library of medical equipment manuals to use in future maintenance (thanks Sheng-Yau!). In addition we received some personal Spanish lessons from a few of our del Valle friends, though our pronunciation leaves much to be desired. After finishing up at Juan Pablo, we immediately boarded our van and set course for the next stop on the trip! An hour of winding roads and haphazard napping later, and we found ourselves in the beautiful city of Antigua. Bordered by steep mountains, Antigua astounds us with its heavy emphasis on floral decoration, intricate architecture, and Spanish ruins. However, the true astonishment was the incredible meal we received at our first Guatemalan steakhouse. With full stomachs and sleepy eyes we leave you with some personal highlights from today!
Tori and Chad: Infant Incubator
At Juan Pablo II, Chad and I worked with Belén and Guillermo,
Universidad del Valle electronics students, to repair an infant incubator. When we started yesterday morning, the incubator
made this loud rattling noise when it was turned on. It turned out that the impeller was leaning
over and hitting another part of the machine, causing the noise. After further dismantling the machine, we
found that the rubber attachments used to stabilize the impeller’s motor had
broken off causing the impeller to lean to one side and bump into the machine
when spinning. Later that day we bought
a rubber tie down strap, some screws, and some nuts from a local store. Upon our return today we fixed the rubber
attachments with super glue then created additional stabilization using the
strap so that the incubator will still work if those rubber pieces break again.
To do so, we cut a slit in the middle of the strap, added holes in the strap
for screws, drilled some holes and notches in the machine frame, and wrapped
the strap around the motor, attaching the ends to the rest of the machine. After reassembling, we tested the incubator to
find that it is fully functional and should be ready for use soon!
My project today was repairing a malfunctioning anesthesia vaporizer. Coming into the trip, I had no idea what was actually wrong with this device. Upon arrival, the resident equipment supervisor could tell us little more than “it delivers too little anesthesia”, and an earlier visit from a licensed technician had yielded the same result. Faced no direct course, I did what an engineer does best: I completely took apart the machine. With some vital assistance from del Valle engineer Diego, we discovered that the internal mechanism limiting the normal flow was essentially a thermostat. It was truly fascinating to find such a simple and universal operating principle in use in such a high risk piece of equipment. After deliberating with several Vanderbilt and del Valle engineers, Diego and I decided that we could “fix” the device, but could not test our solution. The result is an in-depth, photo-assisted manual drafted by myself and Diego which explains how to adjust the performance of the device depending on the level of over and under dosing. For a project whose primary outlook appeared to be a wildly expensive replacement, we counted this as a great victory and awesome learning experience!
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