Busy in the hospital again

Business in the hospital for the Ear, Nose, Throat department has definitely picked up again.

Monday, Jan 26

Excised this woman’s tumor. She never smiled for me before the surgery.

Nine days later she is not looking too bad. She was much happier and laughed with us when we joked around. Pictured with her is the baby that she was pregnant with in the first picture. We had to wait a few months until after she had the baby before we could do the surgery.

Tuesday, Jan 27

We had a busy clinic and then went to the operating room. An 8 year old girl aspirated a metal spring, which Dr. Aboiyar removed.

Friday, Jan 29

I repaired a broken cheek bone. We had some technical issues with our surgical drill, so we used the standby Black and Decker drill. Dan Reimer, a visiting American medical student, helped me with this case. Dr. Aboiyar was tied up with some administrative business.

Saturday, Jan 31, We drained a neck abscess in the operating room. (No pics.)

Monday, Feb 2 We had a full day in the operating room biopsying tumors and performing an extensive sinus surgery. (No pics.)

Tues, Feb 3, was an especially long day. We had quite a few patients to be seen in our clinic and we then had booked a surgery in the afternoon. Dr. Aboiyar was capably fixing a broken jaw in the operating room (using surgical techniques that he has learned over the past few months), I was still trying to see the last few patients in the clinic. At the end of the day, one man walked into clinic with a bandage taped between his eyes and blood stains all over his clothes. He had been hunting that morning in the bush. His homemade gun had misfired and the bolt flew back into his face. The bolt fell to the ground as did the patient, though he never lost consciousness. He was driven into town by his father. They first went to the outpatient clinic where they sat for some time in the waiting area to be seen. After he was finally seen, he was sent immediately to the ENT clinic. When I returned from my late and brief lunch break, he was waiting. I called for him right away and he staggered to the exam chair, where I removed his bandage. He had a large hole between his eyes -- large enough to put a thumb in. He had no vision in the right eye. I took pictures, but they are too graphic for this forum. We took him to the operating room immediately after finishing with the boy with the jaw fracture. I debrided and closed the wound and finally got home for a late dinner with our new guest and my help, Dr. Doug Myers.

Michael Mitchell, MD