A peek into your world

I was invited to scrub up and observe the surgery last night of a one-year-old boy, Samiry Almas, presenting with a massive hole in his enlarged heart. The mood in the operating theatre was relaxed and efficient with much cross fertilisation of ideas and training whilst getting the job done – smooth sailing all the way despite counting 18 doctors, nurses and students present to observe like me. I really have no idea how they do it!

Seeing this little boy’s heart beating inside his chest and knowing that he was going to shortly surrender to the heart/lung machine. Then it would be over to Dr David Andrews from Perth and Dr Godwin from Kilimanjaro to make delicate repairs with the tremendous support of their anaethetists, intensivists, perfusionists and nurses all whilst listening to 80s music, it was nothing short of memorable! I am feeling so happy for Samiry and his family. Thank you for kindly letting me peek into your world and putting up with all my peskyquestions – it’s a highly specialised field that I have stepped into this week and often difficult for me to comprehend. I’m looking forward to seeing this dear little patient and his mum tomorrow!

And here are a few pictures of the ICU team and patients.

PS: At last we managed to sing a quick happy birthday to Jonathan Mervis. Guess it’s better late than never – hakuna matata!