GUEST BLOGGER - JOHN NOVOTNY

Today's guest blogger is John Novotny.  John and Nila Novotny have been married 35 years.  Nila is the "dreamer" and John is the "implementer".  It makes the perfect team.  John works harder than anyone else I know and can organize just about anything down to the last detail.

From John:

John and Nila Novotny with the microscope.

This was my 5^th international mission trip, others were to Nicaragua x 2, Guatemala, Kenya, and now to Haiti.  My role on these trips begins with logistics of the trip and financing of it, and usually then turns into a MacGyver of some sort.  I was supposed to do some construction work on this trip, but the medical aspect did not allow for that on this specific trip.  I guess you could call me more of a “Bio-Medical MacGyver” for this trip.

John organizing supplies in the garage before the trip. 

Most of my time on this trip was spent setting up an Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) clinic at the hospital. There had been some visiting ENT in prior years, but the goal was to have a room dedicated to ENT, so that future ENT Drs. could more easily be recruited if they knew they didn’t have to set one up.  The process began long before our trip, in procuring equipment and supplies to be taken and donated to the project.  Some of the most key and major items for an ENT clinic would be an operating microscope, cautery, suction, flexible and rigid fiberoptic scopes, and general supplies like needles, gauze, retractors, forcepts, blades, and other items very specific to ENT.  Many of the items were either used items from our medical office, purchased by us directly or by donations.  A major factor was taking the items with us, fitting them into checked baggage, and not being over the airline weight limit.  Ultimately, mission accomplished.

Thousands of dollars worth of equipment to donate. 

ENT clinic setup tray. 

In a perfect world, we would have had two microscopes, one for the clinic and one for the Operating Room. However, we only donated one microscope and a way was needed to easily move the microscope from the clinic to the OR.  Normally, you might have the microscope on a heavy cast iron base with wheels, but, that was prohibitive for taking a heavy base in checked baggage, as the base would weigh in excess of 100 lbs.  A second way would be to mount it on the wall, but again, the microscope had to be portable. So I came up with a method to create a base sockett clamped on the clinic bed and a bedrail clamp on the OR bed, and it seemed to fit the bill.

The clamp to attach the microscope to the clinic bed.  It's made to attach to the operating room table, but not the clinic.

Another major project for me was to try to fix an air leak in an anesthesia machine.  I know nothing about these machines, but I know more now.  LOL  It was like a spaghetti plumbing nightmare, with needing smaller hands than I have to get into tight spaces.  In fact, Linda Carlson helped me get two hoses on with her smaller hands, thanks Linda!

John working on the anesthesia machine.

Closeup of the anesthesia machine.

All in all, this trip was about what I expected, having been on others.  Hot, humid, hot humid. Did I say, hot humid? The places and times of these trips might change, but the basic need is there for all of them.

John A. Novotny