Pope Stars

Instead of posting two blogs today, we decided to condense it into a lengthier one. Consequently we decided to post several pictures to maintain your attention. Trust me, you won’t regret it. 

Our team woke up today with unbelievable confidence and vigor. Juan Pablo II was going to test our training and preparations to their furthest limits. The hospital was located about 30 minutes away from our hotel, so we packed Israel’s van to the brim and set out at 7:45 am sharp. JPII is a pediatric hospital that offers nearly all types of care, with specialists ranging from physical therapists to orthodontists. But we were not here to remember our awkward middle school braces days. No, We were determined to fix all of the medical equipment in the hospital.

Some team members fighting to keep a patient monitor alive.
Ally seems to be reciting the Gettysburg address at this moment.

After a quick tour of the facility with Delia (during which, our group discovered that it was the lair for the "pope mobile") we were shepherded into a small conference room. We barely had time to breathe before the hospital maintenance crew began rolling in the machines. The room slowly began to fill with equipment and before long the atmosphere was saturated with beeps and whizzes. Michael and Jake had the challenging job of fixing two ventilators that had not been in use for almost three years! They worked for the entire day, testing and reading about the devices to come up with a sound report for the staff regarding how to progress with them. But, that’s not all. Casey and Ally repaired and tested ECG machines and verified the function of two patient monitors.

Chris and Mary Kate chatting it up while bringing a monitor back to life

Sometimes the team needs some help from some of the resources Guatemala has to offer.
In this case, Guatemala graced us with the little thumb of a resilient Guatemalan child.

It wouldn’t surprise me to find those in patient rooms tomorrow. Sara and Anna deliberated over an incubator and a child monitor that displayed a heart rate that was giving inconsistent readings. The pair will be back at it tomorrow to try to repair this faulty measurement. Daniel and Miranda were the dream team (albeit self-professed) as they tackled two microscopes, a defibrillator, a patient monitor, and an anesthesia machine (ok, they were pretty great). Needless to say, out of the altercation only two walked out. Both human.

While fixing some microscopes the dream team also
found a cure for cancer and restless leg syndrome.

Now this may come as a surprise to many of you but all of this happened before lunch! Here we ate some delicious grilled chicken with rice. Lunch also had salad, which five of our bravest team members ate, Ally being the foremost. After lunch we worked on the machines some more and talked at length with the hospital maintenance workers. They were informed of the new machines that they could now install in operating rooms and patient rooms and they were provided with detailed instructions on how to utilize them.

Nate verifying the status of a temperature sensor.
We soon realized he was doing all of this in his sleep.

After some hours our group drove off to the exotic land of Walmart (Hakuna Matata). Here Dr. P managed to find some of the rarest counterparts to Oreo cookies that Guatemala has to offer. Next we went to another equally foreign location: a restaurant called Patsy’s. Here our team ordered everything from bacon burgers to margarita pies. Our strength replenished and our bo
dies well-nourished we returned to the hotel to hear some of our team members present their research. The reason? Well tomorrow, Casey, Nate, and Orlando will be presenting in front of Universidad del Valle’s electrical engineering student body. Our team will also be able to hear some of the Guatemalan students’ innovative electrical research before traveling back to Juan Pablo II Hospital for a second round of equipment restoration. Somebody give me a second shot of caffeine please!
More updates to come!

Dr. Walker resting after a long work day
whilst immersing himself into the cult of "flappy bird".

team bonding

Looks like being a pope means riding in style
With air conditioning!

Jake verifying the O2 connection to the ventilator.

"Jake and Daniel in repose"
location: walmart

Some memorables:

•  Mary Kate put the team on her back by assessing the working power of an incubator and even provided it with more than two years’ worth of air filters.
•  Sara, Chris, and Nate took to the streets with the help of Josh, our local translator, in search of some power cables and other machine parts.
• Dr. Walker actually does voice overs in many commercials to the surprise of nobody in the group.

Sunday- Funday

A tasty lunch prepared in the local style

After a refreshing lunch break, the team was back at it to wrap up our time at MPSC. We finalized testing on several instruments, including Ally, Anna and Miranda verifying blood-pressure measurement functionality on a couple patient monitors, Michael scouting out the necessary parts and contact information for getting a nice LigaSure vessel sealing system up and running, and Chris and Orlando verifying functionality of another patient monitor, among other projects. As we closed out the afternoon, each of the team members wrote out their final documentation of their work and translated their notes to Spanish to pass onto Cesár and Henri, our friendly on-site technicians. We then summarized our work for them in a final walk-through of the clinic, with the help of our translators, and we presented the two with some parting gifts of appreciation: rocking t-shirts from the Vanderbilt University School of Engineering! (Why didn’t I ever get one of those???)

Orlando debriefs technicians about the patient monitor he worked on Sunday afternoon

After we said our goodbyes at the Moore Pediatric Surgery Center, we headed back to the hotel for a little R&R, including some heated group card games. Before we knew it, we were off to dinner at the Vesuvio Pizzeria, located in the swankyyy Cayalá complex of east GC. This place looked like it would have been luxurious even for America, or the United States, whichever. Here we grabbed some meter-long (!) pizz



Anna, Jake, Mary Kate and Miranda
at our Sunday evening dinner location

Pizza for miles (... a meter, but still, a meter!)

as of various unique flavors, finding ourselves caught in the interesting situation of being an American group eating Italian food in Guatemala City listening to middle-eastern music in the background. Whoa. This was accompanied by some more memorable quotes from Orlando, Michael nearly falling off a 3-foot ledge and giving Dr. P a heart attack (it seemed more like it would’ve been a 20-foot drop, from the perspective of most of the dinner table), and an impromptu game of ‘telephone’ (in which Chris and Israel kept the game alive despite initial concerns ;) ).

The v iew from the second story window of Visuvio

We finished the outing with an enjoyable walk through the plaza in the cool evening breeze. As we stopped along the way to admire the local fare of sweets, cutely dressed dogs, and cutely swing dancing team members Chris and Anna, the excursion lacked neither sights nor serenity. The group avoided some close scrapes and managed to keep our tact intact, unhindered by quick comments confounded in translation (those involved know who they are and need not be named … Orlando). Humorous and memorable as ever, our return bus ride full of “Fortunately/Unfortunately” and “5 Questions” games may have drained our last ounces of energy through all the hearty laughs, but it nonetheless served as a perfect cap to a great first day jam-packed with irreplaceable experiences and memories.

The crew takes in the scenery of Cayalá on a beautiful Sunday evening in Guatemala City

The team will hit it off again tomorrow, bright and early, to head over to Juan Pablo II Hospital. After the success our team had today one can only imagine what is to come tomorrow.


Memorables of the day:

• Anna, Daniel, and Dr. P killed it with their enviable Spanish skills

• Miranda is the unsung hero thus far, she kept all of our tools in place and in order during the entire day while simultaneously working on her individual projects.

• Dr. Walker apparently acted at one point in his life as Morpheus in the Matrix trilogies starring Keanu Reeves. Maybe we will get to see him perform some martial arts. Hopefully we will have more to say about this later.

• Daniel ate an apple. Much to the chagrin of our health advisor, Anna.

• Israel, our driver, actually owns his own car company!

Guatemala tugging at our heart strings. (Our chicken heart that is)

It's only been half a day and our team has been hard at work troubleshooting and repairing a variety of devices in the MPSC operating rooms. But first, a little background, we drove a couple minutes from our hotel to the clinic which was rather hidden from the outside. It was in the middle of a lot of warehouse type buildings but in the inside we encountered a clean and organized clinic with several relatively sophisticated surgical suites. We soon learned that this is where a group of Vanderbilt ophthalmological surgeons performed 65 surgeries in 4 days. Perhaps I should repeat that, 65 surgeries on children in the span of 4 days!
Even though the building was surrounded by razor sharp barb wire, the inside was comfortable and inviting. After a quick tour of the facilities, the team got to work. Ally and Anna tested an anesthesia monitor for use in measuring ECG, temperature and blood pressure. Nate and Miranda opened up a patient vitals monitor in another operating room and tested its ECG and blood pressure readings. Casey and Sara performed surgery on some chicken meat. Just kidding. But they did test the functionality of a recently donated electrosurgical unit (ESU) by making some incisions on a chicken that our driver Israel helped us pick up at a local market.

I'm not sure how I feel about them being this happy after performing surgery on chicken meat.

We ate some pepian and jocon for lunch which wasn't as scary as it sounds. It was some delicious chicken with vegetables and rice. Afterwards we had a quick status meeting. I for one am impressed at all the work the group has done in only 3 hours!

Allow me to brag on them a little more:

• Anna, Ally, Jake, and Mary Kate have successfully assessed the functionality of 3 anesthesia machines. In the future, surgeons and workers will be able to see the detailed notes and instructions our group members leave behind, read the manuals, and use the new cables and parts that we brought over from the states.
• Several patient monitors have been tested by the rest of the group. All with formidable results.
• Sara and Casey have verified the functionality of an electrosurgical unit (ESU).
• Daniel has selflessly sacrificed himself to be tested on to assess the accuracy of the monitors.

Without him we'd be lost.

Flashes, Crashes, and Splashes (potential splashes anyways)

As we finished the final leg of our trip to Guatemala City, the excitement continued to grow as we looked forward commencing with a great week. Reading and naps helped the plane ride pass as we flew over Central America, and before we knew it we were on the ground at the Aeropuerto Internacional de Aurora. Many in the group immediately noticed differences such as the lower lighting in the airport compared to those we’d left in the US, and we also benefitted from the reminder to not flush toilet paper (no plumbing problems to speak of yet ;) ). After a stop at the currency exchange window and quick trip through customs, we were warmly greeted by our hosts Berta and Carty at luggage claim.

House of the Nazarenes. It's like we are in Israel!
Except in Guatemala

The group took a cozy, scenic bus ride to the hotel, courtesy of our driver Israel. After witnessing our first car accident in guatemala we soon made it to our lodging at Casa de Nazarenos. We unloaded our luggage and reconvened for a quick group meeting, enjoying the evening breeze from the comfortable open-air courtyard. Chris managed to get his hands on Sara’s camera and snap some glamour shots of unsuspecting Orlando, and we all successfully avoided taking a swim in the fountain we posed at for our first group photo in Guatemala!

Our group, evidently tired from the trip. Chris managed to keep from falling into the fountain with some impressive straddling skills. Dr. P is taking the picture. Notice the fancy name tags.

Tomorrow's plan is to head over to the Moore Pediatric Surgery Clinic. Here several surgeons from around the world travel to provide their services for the clinic. We will be starting the day off at 8 am with some bread, juice, and refried beans. Let's go! 

Some notable things from the day:

• The turbulence. 
• Subway is a life saver
• Dr. P can speak spanish. Who knew?!
• Chris and Jake are avid wrestlers

Did anyone bring toothpaste??

American Airport Adventures

Chris getting the hang of train surfing through DFW

One flight down and one to go before touchdown in Guatemala City. After a fun day of checking bags full of medical supplies, watching Chris, Casey and Daniel train surf across Dallas Fort Worth Airport and a few rounds of CatchPhrase, we're finally about to board our last plane. We're looking forward to meeting our guides and our co-workers in Guatemala. Now the only thing that stands in our way is 2.5 hours of sitting on a cramped airborne vehicle whilst enduring Orlando's vocal musical talents and affinity for playing hangman.

The team makes the trek to its last Guatemala-bound plane. Jake is a little too excited. He probably should share some excitement with Mary Kate.

And we're off!

In only a few more hours our fearless group of undergraduate engineers (and some non-engineers) will be in the air heading towards the beautiful country of Guatemala. (Cue appropriate dramatic classical music) We will be led by the Intrepid Dr. P and Dr. Walker in our journey to the land of broken medical equipment. We could not be any more excited and nervous at the same time. For some of us this is the first time out of the country, and for others this will be the first time interacting with anything electrical. Fortunately we have spent a lot of time researching and preparing for our various tasks. Strap on your fanny packs we are heading South!

Diligent as always Dr. P and the team are meeting up a couple of hours before the flight leaves. We wouldn’t want to miss our flight, now would we? Updates to come, hopefully we will be able to share with the readers of our great adventure to Guatemala.

Can you believe we're going to Guatemala again?

Dr. P, Dr. Walker, and a new crew of 12 wonderful Vanderbilt students will be headed to Guatemala for spring break 2014 to work in medical facilities.  Check back here later for more info.