Sunday, Oct. 13, 2013

Sunday is a day off for the surgical crew, and one well deserved. There have been 12 surgeries in 6 days. There are 8 patients in Tele and 4 in ICU. The ICU has a 5-bed capacity and the Telemetry unity has 8-10 bed capacity. Patients are moved out of the ICU as soon as possible to make room for the incoming surgery patients. The average stay for the ICU is 2 days and the Tele unit, 4. Our first patient, Sarah, will go home tomorrow, Monday, to her 5 children. She was VERY happy today to hear of the impending discharge. When patients are discharged, they are given a bag of goodies, both for themselves and their children. Flip flops, toys (if they have children) hats, and t-shirts as well as a blanket, heart-shaped pillow, and a colorful pillowcase. (All these things are packed are gathered or made in Spokane, packed and brought over in trunks). Of course they are given instructions for taking their medications, and given a follow-up appointment for the cardiologist. Last evening, Sandy Goldberg, her very helpful daughter, Rebecca, and her friend Stephanie, left for home along with several of the OR crew (yes, Hamby, you will be missed.) Michael Liang, a pulmonologist-intensivist who joined us from Seattle this year, told me a wonderful story. He recounted how Rahema, a 30 year old mother of 4 children, could only take 2-3 steps before getting short of breath. Two days after her surgery, she was so surprised at how well she could breath already! When she went for a walk, Michael had her to slow down so that the picture he was taking wouldn’t be blurry! Stories like this make this trip all worthwhile.