Observing

Yangon General Hospital is a beautiful looking hospital which was a gift from Queen Victoria.When I arrived at the Hospital today the first case was being completed by the local junior surgeon. I was impressed with the local resources as they had a treadle machine they use to make their own sponges.

In ICU I observed the team’s physiotherapist as she got yesterday’s patients up and about to get their bodies moving again. She also has three local students who would be accompanying her for the day.It was also observed three of our pioneer volunteers standing together which was a perfect photo opportunity (above left photo:Chris, Pam and Bruce). They are all still very active volunteers with Open Heart International!

At the other hospitals we assist in the echo technicians were in action assisting the surgeons and cardiologists with screening and diagnosis. Christine, one of the other team’s physio and our youngest member Ellie were putting the post-op kids through their paces with breathing exercises by using bubble blowers and party blowers.

In the evening as the sun set a number of us spent a bit of time at the Shwedagon Pagoda before meeting the rest of the team for dinner at the hotel and a debrief on the day.