Film Production by Vandy and Del Valle

 We are ready to start a new day at the Moore Center!

7 am bright and early we had breakfast at the hotel! Delicioso! Professor Adams shared with us his dream and from there everyone shared their philosophy on where dreams come from.

With a full belly, we went to the Moore Center to work on our videos. In addition to our individual equipment assignment, we were also divided into three groups to make instructional videos about the blood pressure monitor, anesthesia ventilation, and anesthesia gas mixing and delivery. In each group, four students were assigned a role: videographer, audio, editor, and writer. Today we recorded footage and were joined by five students attending Universidad del Valle: Darwin, Ennio, Luis, Manuel and Christian. To say the least, everyone was super productive; we managed to record and even partially edit our videos! It was so great working and conversing with the Del Valle students. Jokingly Cassie told Luis (the Del Valle student) that Linus needed brain surgery, Luis replied with a smile “Sorry I am a dentist, but if you trust me I can do.”

Fun time with students from Unversidad del Valle! We are all getting so good at 'Passing the Pigs'!

After a few hours of work we took a lunch break and celebrated Professor Adam’s birthday. Shout out to Professor Adams, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

We then returned to working on our videos.

Meredith, Claire, Sami and Alison focused on explaining how to select the correct size of the blood pressure cuff, align blood vessels and take blood pressure measurements. Sami, the videographer made sure to capture the moment. Darwin, Alison, and team leader Meredith were the actors in the video and Claire, the writer, helped throughout the production.

Darwin volunteered for a blood pressure test with 'Dr. Meredith'

In the room across the hall the anesthesia ventilation team was working hard on their video. Lydia, Jasmine, Quinn, and Linus were also joined by Luis and Ennio. Their video focused on how to use a pulse oximeter, how to troubleshoot a ventilation hose and how to set up an anesthesia instrument. Team leader Lydia, made a plan, Luis and Ennio were our actors and Jasmine recorded the footage! When the footage was complete Quinn started to edit the video clips. Although Linus is the writer, today he helped throughout the whole process and was a valued team member.

Team checking Linus's oxygen saturation with the anesthesia machine

In the meanwhile, Cassie, Joe and Joanna, led by team leader Ryan, dedicated themselves to their new film making careers! Please look forward to their new production: Anesthesia II: Gas mixing and delivery. Coming soon. They successfully collected all the clips with the anesthesia machine with great help and feedback from Christian and Manuel. Their video focused on the mixing and delivery of gas on the anesthesia machine, and they worked closely together to go through the schematic views of the vaporizer, mixing board, and anesthesia delivering circuit. Cassie volunteered bravely to take the role as the actress in the video, and did a great job on leading us through the machine functions. Plus, she looked fabulous in the medical robe! Joe, our videographer, dominated the whole shooting with the camera in his hands. Ryan, our rising Oscar director, consulted meticulously with Christian and Manuel to make sure that the anesthesia system video footage was loud and clear. In fact, they worked together, along with the technician from Moore Center, and were able to rearrange the manual ventilation and patient delivery system into the proper place. 

Look at all the beautiful colors! Go Team Rainbow!

Highlights of the day:

- Happy Birthday to Professor Adams!

- We ran into Vanderbilt Project Pyramid at the Moore Center! How exciting to meet our fellow commodores in Guatemala!

- Passing the Pigs with the del Valle students! Playing games is always a good way to create bonds!

- Along with other new students from the Universidad del Valle, we will be working with Darwin, Christian, and Ennio again tomorrow at Hospital Infantil de Juan Pablo II!

- Team Rainbow at the Moore Center!

-  Dinner at La Estancia Steak House! Woohoo!

First Day First!

 Sweet and satisfied smiles after enjoying pineapple pies, muffins, and rolls for appetizer. Thank you to Dr.P. who brought desserts and the San Martin orange muffins! 

   What is the best way to start our first day in Guatemala? Sleep in? Brunch? Yes! On our way to brunch, we witnessed our first Guatemalan animal rights parade. Marching bands filled the air with their colorful music! After waiting patiently for a few minutes at the restaurant, San Martin, we were able to sit down and get overwhelmed by the variety of food options. Everyone enjoyed their breakfast and conversations with each other.
   Later after brunch, we had the pleasure to enjoy a relaxing walk along with some dog lovers and runners along the city road. The Guatemala City is decorated with natural greenness and historical beauty. The central square, east of the Cathedral of Guatemala City and west of the Royal Palace,  surprised us with its rich culture content, from traditional Guatemalan clothing to folk art performances.

Dr. P. , Lydia, Quinn, and many others cheer with colorful smoothies!

Brunch at San Martins! We all needed the energy for some real work at the Moore Center this afternoon. 

  After a tour of Guatemala city, we went to the Moore Center! All the skills we acquired this semester were ready for action!

  Earlier in the semester we were assigned biomedical equipment that needed to be fixed at the Moore Center, Hospital Infantil de Juan Pablo II, Hospital Nacional de Palin and Obras Sociales del Hermano. Given a few notes and pictures of the equipment, we tackled the task of identifying the issues and resolving them. Meredith was successfully able to make an otherwise incomplete ventilator, complete.  The ventilator was finally functional with her diligence to find the appropriate oxygen saturation cable.

 

Meredith troubleshoots cable replacement

  Similarly, Jasmine was assigned to fix an otoscope, one of the handles on the otoscope did not produce light. After much research she concluded that it should be replaced. With a donation from Project C.U.R.E., Jasmine was able to deliver a completely functional otoscope to Señor Henry, the medical engineer at the Moore Center. Later this week Jasmine also plans to assess the partially functional otoscope in the hope of fixing it!

Jasmine checks the functionality of the otoscope before giving it to Senor Henry

While on site Señor Henry asked if we could take a look at a partially functioning blood pressure monitor and an anesthesia instrument. The blood pressure cuff could inflate appropriately but could not acquire the correct measurements, the monitor would report "air leakage." Claire, Alison, Joe, Dr. P., and Professor Adams raised to the challenge and determined that only the "adult" settings, as opposed to the "infant" and "children" settings, were not working properly. After further troubleshooting, they concluded that the blood pressure unit was the issue. The unit was disassembled, and it was identified that a quick epoxy fix could resolve the issue. We will have to wait until tomorrow to see if it works!
Also, Professor Adams and Linus investigated the malfunctioning alarm feature on an anesthesia instrument. 

Claire, Alison, Lydia and Dr. P look to see the issue with the blood pressure unit.

Linus and Professor Adams troubleshoot an anesthesia instrument 

Please allow us to brag a little about our team members:

-To Linus who nailed his first day of people wrangling.

-To Sami and Cassie for the beautiful photos in the blog.

-To Claire who set up all the cell phones for communication. 

-To Quinn who successfully delivered heartwarming gifts to Cecilia. 

-To Alison who organized all the tools we needed for equipment fixing.

-To Joe who provided safety and health to everyone (distributed hand sanitizers)

-To Joanna and Jasmine who continues to update the blog. 

-To Dr. P. and Dr. Adams who took care of all the ordering and menu translation at the restaurants.

Way to go everybody!!:)

Arrival and Bravo!

First group photo in Guatemala. Tried from the long journey but glad for the safe arrival!
Special thanks to our photographer Sami!

   After a brief layover at the Washington Dulles airport, stretching our legs, getting drinks and food, and maybe digging into a few new books, we took off at promptly 7 pm to our final destination, Guatemala. Napping, reading and watching the funny airplane commercials definitely helped the five hours to fly by. After arriving at the La Aurora International Airport, picking up our checked luggage (We don't want to leave our equipment, do we?), and a smooth trip through customs, we were warmly greeted by our coordinator, Señorita Cecilia, and driver, Señor Henry, at the airport exit.
 We then took a nice car ride to our hotel at Casa de Nazarenos in Guatemala. After unloading our luggage, we regathered for a quick group debrief. Tired but really excited for the upcoming week, we manage to show our BME spririt with huge smiles in our first Guatemala group shot. Looking forward to brunch, the city tour, and some equipment fixing at the Moore Center tomorrow!
   A couple of shout-outs:
   - to our fellow Vandy Commodores whom we encountered at the airport! Good luck and Anchor Down in Guatemala!
   - to Dr. P., Ryan, Joe, and Linus for carrying extra bags of tools and equipment!

Here we go again!

Our team is ready to roll!

      Horray! In only a few hours, our brave team, led by Dr. P. and Dr. Adams, will lay our feet on the beautiful land of Guatemala! A first time for most of us. How exciting! We couldn't wait to immerse ourselves into the world of medical equipment. For the past two months we have been enthusiastically researching and preparing ourselves for tasks we will be facing. Therefore, we are more than ready to start our journey. More updates coming after landing! See you soon Guatemala!

Before Lift Off!

Only hours until we leave, the excitement continues to escalate as we pack, double check, and triple check all of our equipment and luggage.

Before we leave I would like to thank all of the wonderful people who have helped us along the way!

Special thanks to Lindsey Moore and Karen Bice from Project C.U.R.E for supplying us with key supplies and medical equipment that we've used for developing our skills. Speaking on behalf of the team, it is really rewarding to give back to Project C.U.R.E some now functional equipment. After couple hours,  Joe Hodge, Jasmine Greer, Cassie Wessely,  Linus Lee, Claire Lafferty, Sami Kopinsky and Wilson Adams were able to fix two surgical light sources and identify a key problem with a steam sterilizer. Great work!

What is this Instrument?

Ryan checks out the oxygen level

Before we leave for Guatemala lets first learn about the anesthesia instrument!
Dr. Stuart McGrane gave us a brief lecture about how this system works. This hands on experience gave us insight to the complexities behind the anesthesia instrument!

Zipping Down, Saddling Up and Flying Out

The team gears up for a zip line tour down a Guatemalan
mountainside at Finca Filadelfia.

[From 03-08-14] After a long week of hard work, the team was due for a fun day, and today was promising to not disappoint. On the docket we had ziplining and horse back riding at the Finca Filadelfia which translates to "Farm Philadelphia". Though some in our team were apprehensive about trusting their lives and weights to Guatemalan zip lines, many of us still took the leap (quite literally). Fortunately, and to our amazement, the zip lining was breathtaking. First we rode up a steep mountain on a precarious bus, frequently waving to the coffee workers that picked the beans from the stalks that grew on the side of the mountain. Next we suited up and let gravity be our entertainment. The view was surreal, as Antigua is located in a valley surrounded by leafy mountains set against the backdrop of a towering volcano. Needless to say, we were saturated by the beauty that nature threw at us as we slid down the tight ropes. The rest of our group, Orlando, Ally, and Chris took a more intimate ride with horses through the facility and its surroundings. Since Chris was the only experienced one, the others enjoyed the challenge of riding a horse for the first time. 

Miranda zips through the forest
canopy like a pro.

After our adrenaline hit we went to the facility’s shop where many of us depleted our personal funds on delicious coffee. Later we drove back to the hotel and checked out. 
A sting of nostalgia was in the air as we cleaned our rooms out and packed our bags into Israel’s car. Nevertheless, the melancholic mood was quickly dissipated as we were determined to invade the artisan shops. After a quick tour at Pollo campero we made our way to the shops, recalling all of our haggling schemes. A couple of hours later and many Quetzales spent the group lugged their trophies back to the hotel. 

Part of the team poses near the entrance to the Mercado de Artesanías.

Back in Guatemala City the group queued up in a small hotel to hear some of the team member’s thoughts of the trip. After a heartfelt talk with Dennis and Berta the team went straight to bed to get some rest before going to the airport at 5 am.

An awe-inspiring view of the valley from the ziplining tour at Finca Filadelfia.

We departed early Sunday morning, exhausted but grateful for such an incredible week. With so much to think and reflect on, many of the group members could do little more than sleep on it for that afternoon’s flights, and thankfully we all returned safely to Nashville. But the observations, experiences and memories from that trip were sure to give us much to consider and discuss in the days to come, as they already have in our team debrief meeting March 17 and as each team member has done through the individual journaling and final report assignments. And I’m confident that, for me, as for most of our group, we’ll continue to see for months and years to come how this trip has impacted everyone involved.

We would like to thank the following people and organizations for helping to make this trip possible:

Berta Rivas and the Shalom Foundation

Annie Element and Samy Badie of Project C.U.R.E.

Mary Dockery, our TA

John Dunbar, engineer extraordinaire

Tina Shaw -- BME

Chris Rowe, Brenda Ellis -- VUSE Engineering Communications

Michele Cedzich -- VUSE

Robin Carlson -- VUSE

Sheri Stevens -- VUSE

The Moore Pediatric Surgery Center

Hospital Infantil Juan Pablo II

Hospital Nacional Pedro de Bethancourt

Obras Sociales del Hermano Pedro, especially Odra Flores