LEAVING TODAY

We are packed and ready to go.  We spent Sunday afternoon at Mission Heart in Central City packing for the trip.  Each of us has 2 large (50 lb) checked bags mostly full of medical supplies.  We are only allowed at 15 lb carryon - backpack, so we're all weighed to 49.5 lb and 14 lb respectively.

I wanted to add pictures of us packing, but my photos

ZAMBIA PREPARATIONS

We are nearing our departure date for Zambia.  Kim, a nurse from Lincoln, is the team leader and heading out in a week with a smaller group. We've had a saga about anesthesia.  The Chifundo clinic added on to their building to make it possible to do more surgery.  They have already been able to do cataract surgery, but now we're adding general anesthesia.  We have a CRNA who has done missions in the past and traveled a lot.  To that end, we have procured an anesthesia machine.  Initially we thought we had one donated from a hospital that closed.  It was to be shipped on a cargo container in March, but time was running out so we bought a different machine and at the last minute received the donated machine too.  They both got on the container, but we just found out it was hung up in Singapore.  In addition to all that, we've had a donation of a portable anesthesia machine just this week from a retired Army anesthetist that we decided we'd better take along in case the container doesn't arrive in time.

This is the whole thing.  It weighed around 85 lb.  We picked up the portable machine - it's never been used and was from an Army surplus place in 1997. 

It is shiny and new and looks totally workable, even coming with the instruction manual, but the big problem we found is that it's too heavy for the checked bags.  It would cost $400 each way on United airlines, but Emirates airlines won't allow this much weight at all.  Sooooooo.....  John (the fixit guy) now has figured out how to take it apart to carry it in pieces so the weight will be OK.

This is the machine opened up and taken apart. 

It looks like it will all come together OK.  We have anesthetics to take also and will split them up into several suitcases in case of luggage problems.  We've got it all covered through TSA and the airlines.  Who knows? Maybe we'll end up with 3 anesthesia machines.  

We're getting commissioned at Federated Church in Columbus next Sunday and will be packing in Central City the following Sunday.  Anyone who is interested in donating to our cause can make checks payable to Columbus Medical Mission Team and send it to Federated Church, 2704 15th St.

Columbus NE 68601.  It will help cover the machine we bought and additional supplies ordered.  There seem to be more expenses than usual since we are starting up general anesthesia at the Chifundo Clinic in Zambia.  We are all getting excited for the trip.

HAITI 2018 with John

This is a summary of the recent trip John made to Haiti.

April 2018:  The 17^th Semi-annual Grace4Haiti Team Trip

SUMMARY

Haiti changes each of us, each time we go. It even affects the veterans as our hearts are further wounded with each tragedy and mended along with our patients’ bodies. We somehow return heart-broken yet uplifted.   Thank you to everyone who served. 

First week

We had one of our smallest teams—only 25 members— but still had an a very productive week. Although we tried to do only surgical evaluations the first week, it was too hard to turn people away, some of whom had traveled far to see us.  Since we were short staffed, we ran the clinic in Hallway C in the hospital (just like old times), and it worked very well as the hospital now has a wonderful waiting room next to the ER, with benches, a television and a radio used to call for the next patient to go to the dossier window, which really cut down on congestion.

●    In the OR, General Surgery and Ortho performed 48 surgical procedures. 

●    240+ patient consultations in clinic and/or in the surgical consultation wing

●    Our two MacGyvers made critical repairs to numerous pieces of equipment, and made the COOLEST IV stands (thank you, Pinterest!).

One of the PVC pipe IV poles they made.

John talking to one of the orphans at the orphanage.

A shelf for the patient rooms so the patients can store things and nurses have something to write on.  

●    With only 3 pre/post op nurses, anesthesia pitched in to help out in this area. In fact, the nurses both weeks developed systems and protocols that smoothed out the bumps and gave us good guidelines for next time.

●    We had our only serious major trauma case this week, a very bad  motorcycle-motorcycle accident involving 5 people. As usual the team demonstrated superb professionalism and team work with the limited resources available. The team will be relieved to hear that the patient  transferred on to another hospital survived and is doing fine. 

●   The orthopedic team organized the C-hallway storeroom. 

Second Week:

Second week we had 32 team members, including a full clinic contingent. With the support and cooperation from our Haitian partners at Pierre Payen we were able to continue with clinic in the hospital which makes workflow so much more efficient and is a big advantage for providers and patients.

●    In the hospital, General Surgery, Gynecology and Orthopedics performed 37 patient surgeries. 

●    Clinic providers saw almost 200 patients, and assisted in surgery, post-op which enabled those team members breaks, rest, and see some daylight outside their domain

The Victor Binkley mission hospital at Pierre Payen

●    Anesthesia staff sorted through the hubris in central supply, reducing outdated, overstocks, and non-relevant supplies by 30%

There were many other successes, but sometimes the challenges were unanswerable without the tools, tests, equipment or personnel that we have at home. The C-arm is completely out of commission, the x-ray limped along as always, and our autoclave worked intermittently, forcing us to use the smaller one. Yet even with these obstacles, we were still able to care and serve our Haitian brothers and sisters.

MacGyver with Kim Jorgensen-OR and the autoclaves.  

Pierre Payen continues to progress and improve under the leadership of Dr. Patrick Jacques (medical director), Marc Versil (hospital administrator), Nurse Norelia (head nurse), Mike and Dawn Vandervoort (Pierre Payen / Project Help /CGGC leadership), and Stephen Hosler ( Project Help CFO). The pharmacy program Grace4Haiti partnered on with the hospital last year is reaping benefits; there is visible improvement in hospital staffing performance in many areas. Dr. Patrick and Marc shared specific plans and goals for improvements for this year and next. 

In summary, in two weeks we performed 85 surgeries and treated around 400 patients in the clinic.

We are grateful to Mike and Dawn, our compound hosts, for welcoming us with more typical Haitian food. The polenta-type corn meal was a huge hit! Again, we remind our hosts that we’re fine with having rooster anytime. We’re also grateful to Pastor Watson for his enthusiasm, his work, his prayers, and his teaching us a Creole hymn during devotions.

Teamwork with our hosts

●   We now have a referral sheet for follow-ups with a local doctor, another team, or our November team. The number of surgical patients who showed up wanting or needing surgeries was just too many for our already overloaded schedule. We had to start a waitlist, which then became a referral list.

●   Teamwork with the Haitian staff becomes closer. Dr. Stephanie Felix, the Haitian ENT, worked with us in the clinic and performed surgeries while we were there. The Haitian gynecologist Dr. Clair Jeune assisted Dr. Cindy with many hysterectomies and other procedures. We still have work to do to integrate the Haitian nursing staff with our, having name tags for everyone went a long way in developing these relationships.

Planning Ahead

The next two trips are tentatively set for Grace4Haiti Medical Mission Trip are:

●   November 2018

○        Week 1: November 9-16

○        Week 2: November 16-23

●   April 2019

○        Week 1: 5-12

○        Week 2: 12-19

If you would like to go any of these weeks contact Grace4Haiti on FB.

Thank you, every one of you for your gift of your time and talents!

Jennifer, Joe, and Dave

In the dining hall

The MacGyvers

 

ZAMBIA MEETING 2018

2018 ZAMBIA TEAM

We had a planning meeting for our mission to Zambia today at our house in Columbus.  The agency we're working with is Gospelink - http://gospelink.com/

Our Columbus Medical Mission Team has come together with this group from Nebraska.  We are lining up really well for the Eye/ENT surgical team. 

Back L->R Dr. Nila N. Otolaryngologist, John N., MacGyver, Dr. Pete D., Ophthalmologist, Sam W., surgery nurse, Dr. Alicia M., hospitalist, Giana B., PA.

Middle row L->R Kim S., nursing, Sandra W., nursing, Heather N., surgery nurse, Elsa G., Dental asst, translator, Miguel G., MA, translator.

Front L->R Casey S., nursing, Nancy G., nursing, Jenn L., Nurse Anesthetist.

We were only missing a couple of the medical missionaries, but we have 2 others on board - Emily and Namdar, both nursing.

We discussed travel plans, equipment and supplies we'll need and saw photos of the place we'll be going.

Good resources I recommended include getting a copy of Town Nyanja, the local language and Into Africa by Dugard that includes some of the history of the area and tells the story of Stanley and Livingstone. Also, the blog by Dr. Marjie Heier has a lot of interesting information about Chifundo Clinic  http://chifundoclinicstep.blogspot.com and Mission Heart on FB has a lot of information and is loading supplies on a cargo container to be shipped soon.  They have shipped two already in the last few months. We are waiting on word about an anesthesia machine that may be donated that we can get on the cargo container.

There is a lot to think about.  We've got some very experienced people and some newbies just applying for their passports who haven't traveled outside the US.  It will be the trip of a lifetime.  Only two of our team has been to Zambia before and we'll be joining some folks from S. Carolina and/or Maryland who are going to help with education and have been to Zambia. Keep us in your prayers.  We are always taking donations of supplies and money.

I will add bios of the team as we approach the trip in July. 

In the meantime, John is heading to Nicaragua with Global Passion Ministries along with Tam B's team in February. I'll see if he can write some of the blog while he's there. 

NN

BACK TO NICARAGUA

Now that John is semi retired he has time to pursue other things.  We traveled to Nicaragua 3 times in years past but then Columbus Medical Mission Team passed the torch to Global Passion Ministries.  This February John is joining their group as a Mcgyver.  They got an article in the Columbus Telegram last week to help promote their spaghetti feed fund raiser next Sunday at noon at Peace Lutheran Church.  There are many inaccuracies in the article, but only those who know the mission well will recognize them.

http://columbustelegram.com/news/local/new-team-same-mission-for-group-heading-to-nicaragua/article_3a178d77-6401-57b2-bef6-85d1a509b06e.html

The Columbus Contingent: 

back Dan Smith, Scott Boettcher - McGyvers

front Tam Boettcher, APRN Kevin Harm, APRN and John Novotny - McGyver

ONE MORE NOTE

10-25-2017

I didn’t think I would blog again, but today included a new area I had not seen before. Some of the photos I thought were in the “Really?” category. 

Other photos are self-explanatory.

An ambulance that burned up in the fire.  

A burned lot for sale 

UPS still delivering to charred remains. Really?

I have the next two days off the recuperate, and will enjoy the beach tomorrow. Also, I thought I would be going to San Francisco alone on Friday, but as it turns out, my ERV mate will be going with me, he is from Connecticut and we will go see some sights there before we both fly out an home on Saturday.

Our site/mission is officially over this Friday, and the primary feeding, sheltering, mass care will end. What will remain is Red Cross mental health workers. They get to clean up and put closure on the human side of this tragedy.

Signing off, and I’d like to say I hope you enjoyed my blogs about this, it’s hard to say “enjoy” but rather process them.

John A. Novotny

LAST DAYS

10-23-2017

Today was another interesting day. I have been on the Coffey Park route for 3 days, and today we got transferred to another route. Partially because we just need to rotate and take our turn at seeing the bigger picture of as many fire areas as we can, but because we wanted to as well. The place we went to today was an apartment complex, which is primarily housed by migrant workers, that are now out of jobs, because their bosses/employers lost houses, farms, vineyards, or whatever the case me be. It’s a secondary effect of the fires. 

We had some left over food from this feeding, and was able to take it to the homeless living under a bridge in the area. 

Some of the homeless are now due to their houses being burned down, rather than the traditional homeless we may thing of otherwise. I attached some photos of the bridge area.

On the way home today, we saw  great sunset, so thought I would end my blog with something positive.

10-24-2017

Today was my daughter Ashley’s birthday, so I made time to call her. We don’t have a lot of time to do much techy stuff, and we work 12-16 hour days. Most of my blogging is done late at night here. We were back on the Coffey Park route today. Actually, the folks in this area are starting to dwindle. Once residents come back in and sift through the ashes, and get with their insurance agent, there isn’t a big reason to come back again, unless they are helping a neighbor or friend. Tomorrow the 25^th will be our last run to this area. The cities are talking about just coming into these areas with contracted commercial cleanup crews, bulldoze and remove, then put 4” of dirt down, then the rebuilding can start. It will take years of course, and not everyone will rebuild here, so it will be a long workout situation.

I was able to visit with the California Fire fighters directly today, (front line folks) , and they said that as of today, all of the remaining fires are contained, but some are still burning, but not out of control.

In light of that, our entire operating is preparing to phase down and out too. This Friday or Saturday may be the end of the assignment/project for Red Cross in these areas. I have attached a map of the counties we were in, in this part of the state.

 I also attached a photo of my current ERV driving mate, 
and the director of our site we have been working at for 2 weeks.

For me, by Thursday (26^th), I will have put in 3 weeks without a day off. Since the operation is preparing to phase out anyway, I have been given the opportunity to have two free days at the end of my assignment, and then they will fly me home.  I plan of going to the beach on Thursday with a car load of other Red Cross workers that have the same day off. One of those workers has access to a car, so we will use that for the 16 mile trip to the beach. It is called Bodega Bay, and it is on US highway #1, that is the coast road from San Diego, to Seattle. We will be on a sliver of it, so plan to take a swim suit and get in the cold water, as its been hot here (record high today), and sight see, and eat something other than Red Cross food.  LOL

My second day (Friday) I will be by myself, and I will be taking a shuttle to the San Francisco airport (donated by a local company doing this for free for Red Cross workers). It takes about 1.75 hours to get from here to the airport. Once at the airport on Friday, I will leave my luggage at the hotel I am staying at nearby, then take the commuter train to downtown San Francisco, and ride the cable cars for a day. Then I will fly out early Saturday morning and get to Omaha by about 5:00 pm, then drive home to Columbus.

I the big picture, it was a great experience, and will probably be doing more of these in the future, maybe 1 or 2 a year. But it will be good to get home, it’s been a long journey and I am exhausted physically and mentally.

Signing off, and to all a good night.

John A. Novotny

LEMONADE STAND SURVIVES

Somehow a lemonade stand survived.  These are photos from John in California with the Red Cross. When they have leftover food for the day they take it to the homeless under a bridge.

Here's the surviving lemonade stand. Go figure.

Under the bridge

The rest of these pictures are from neighborhoods where John is working and his vehicle and work areas.

Inside the truck.

REENTRY

10-20-2017

Today was an eventful day. Our ERV was selected as one to do a collaborative
effort of feeding with the Salvation Army from Santa Rosa, CA. We leaded our
vehicle with 400 meals of pulled beef sandwiches, green beans, snacks, water
and Gatorade. We met at the Salvation Army location in Santa Rosa and went
as a convoy to a place called Coffey Park, one of the hardest hit places,
with about 1,300 homes that burned. We fed about 375 of those meals, and
about 600+ snack items too.

Just today, the police are just letting residents back into the area a sift
through their remains. They wanted to make sure it was safe from gas and
electrical lines, and also to recover the bodies of those that burned with
their houses.

Tomorrow (21st) will be a repeat, and after that, I am not sure. Once a
resident confirms their house is 100% with their insurance agent, there is
no real reason to go back until the rebuilding process starts with
contractors.

More tomorrow.

John