Pucallpa, Peru Winter 2011

She Loves Those Babies

Pucallpa, Peru-Emily Ulm, ReSurge volunteer nurse.

One of our PACU nurses on this trip, Yvonne, is a mother of two grown sons.  She brags about these sons and often talked about how much she loves them and missed them when they moved away from home.   She has a heart of gold and a true love of children.  I saw this in particular when the younger patients arrived.  Yvonne’s face would light up whenever a baby was around and she couldn’t wait for them to be done with surgery so that she could recover them in the PACU.  On one particular occasion I entered the PACU as she was just about to give a baby some water by syringe.  Just that simple task was a joy to Yvonne and I could see it in the way that she treated that baby.  This is one woman I would love to have looking after me or my family members. Our patients were indeed lucky to have nurses Yvonne and Cynthia on this trip in the PACU. 

Working Together

Pucallpa, Peru-Emily Ulm, ReSurge volunteer nurse.

Our team works very well together.  We spent the first couple of days really bonding. It seems that we all enjoy each other's company, which allows the team to run smoothly.  We have also received a lot of help from Dr. Anderson from the local hospital we are working in.

All in all, this first week has been very successful.  The skills of our surgeons are amazing and I always love it when that final stitch goes in and we can all see the final product.

I am looking forward to even more good things in the upcoming days.

How Two Cats Helped Rocio Prepare for Surgery

Pucallpa, Peru- Fran Cunniffe, ReSurge associate director of medical education and outreach.

Rocio was born with a congenital hand deformity 10 years ago; she cannot use her index finger which makes it difficult for her to write and draw. Our surgeons determined they could operate on her finger to straighten it for her, so Rocio checked into the hospital for surgery this morning. She was very scared about getting an IV before surgery, so I sat with her and showed her some pictures of my two cats (KP and McLovin) to help distract her while our anesthesiologist started the IV in her hand. It turns out she likes KP the best. We gave her a coloring book while she waited to go into the OR, and she had a great time coloring and looking at pictures of "gatitos" (cats in Spanish).

Helping Patients Get Evaluated for Surgery

Pucallpa, Peru-Emily Ulm, ReSurge volunteer OR nurse.

This is my third trip with ReSurge as a volunteer OR nurse. On the first day of my previous trips, the head OR nurse and I unloaded boxes of supplies and set up the operating rooms for surgery.  This year, due to a delay in the shipment of our supplies, I had the privilege of helping out during clinic day evaluations (when patients are evaluated for surgery).  I helped with some of the paper work as well as calling patients when it was their turn to be assessed.  As English is my first (and only) language, I can only imagine what my poor Spanish sounded like to the patients. But I managed to call them and get them into the room for assessment.

One boy in particular (pictured above), gave me a kiss on the cheek before entering the assessment room.  He must have been almost 15 years old and my heart just melted.  I was not sure if he was just very polite, or very appreciative of being able to see us, or both, but I was very touched.  The warmth of the people in Pulcallpa is amazing.  The hotel staff and the hospital staff are very hospitable; it is very comforting to be here.