Surgery: Day Two

Wow, what a busy busy day today! Not only did we complete all of our scheduled cases, but we had to clean up a mess of a patient left over by a Spanish team from four weeks ago. She had gone home but returned today due to her infection. The Spanish docs performed a hernia repair with mesh and then extended their procedure by also performing a panniculectomy (removal of the pannus, all the skin and fat from the abdomen). The panniculectomy became infected and since she has mesh, the mesh is also a source of infection. We took her on and two of the surgeons opened her up and cleaned out all kinds of smelly nonsense. It's a wonder she's alive. I felt like I was at home doing an add-on case at 4:00 in the afternoon on a sick patient who was infected! The Spanish doc who originally performed her surgery will probably not be allowed to return to Hermano Pedro. Teams are supposed to only perform simple surgeries. Many of these patients do not have clean homes to return to so a major surgery never should have been performed. I'll get off my soapbox now!

I'll upload a few pix here in a minute, then I'm off to dinner and bed!