Jeff is our ECHO tech with 25 years experience at Sacred Heart Med Ctr. Jeff is married to Kim and they have 2 grown children. This is his first trip to Rwanda and Kim was able to come as well to work as a volunteer and check out women’s cooperatives for her fair trade store in Spokane, Kizuri.
Echo is an ultra-sound of the heart, a visualization that helps diagnose disease and allow evaluation of the valves and overall heart function. Jeff echos the patients both pre- and post-op as well as during surgery after the repair of the valve or the prosthetic valve(s) has been placed. The echo during surgery is called trans-esophageal. A transducer is put down the esophagus and allows the ultrasound to see if there is good valve and heart function. He also echos the patient before discharge to make sure the heart is functioning as expected.
Jeff had heard of previous travelers stories of the work of HHNW and both he and Kim wanted experience Rwanda in a working role. He feels that performing echos here is more challenging, mostly because it is out of his routine. The equipment is different as well as the people, but he is still having fun and everything so far is running smoothly.
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