Sierra Leone, December 2023

  • Sierra Leone 2023
  •  Sierra Leone 2023
  • Sierra Leone 2023
  • Sierra Leone 2023
  • Sierra Leone 2023
  •   Sierra Leone 2023
  • Sierra Leone 2023
  •  Sierra Leone 2023
  •  Sierra Leone 2023
 MISSION SUMMARY:

Date: November 30 - December 10 2023
Location:  Kabala General Hospital, Kabala, Sierra Leone
Team Size: 19
Length of Mission: 11 days
Number of patients seen/triaged: 
Number of Surgeries Performed: 63

 BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE

This was ISHI’s eight mission to Kabala Government Hospital in Kabala, Sierra Leone. The ISHI team was invited back to KGH with approval from the Republic Ministry of Health, local municipalities and chiefdoms as well as the hospital leadership. 

We anticipated providing both clinical care and exchange of both technical and clinical information. We planned for adult and pediatric surgical cases including repair of umbilical, inguinal, and femoral hernias, mass excisions, and hydrocelectomies. Furthermore, we planned to train local health care, police, and members of the community with bleeding control exercises with the Stop the Bleed course. 

 PATIENTS AND LOCATION

Patients were alerted, screened, and evaluated weeks before the mission via recruitment from the local healthcare team. We planned to 1) collaborate with the local team to provide surgical and medical care 2) teach capacity building of local providers daily, including providing continuing surgical education to the non-physician surgeons and nursing, and Stop the Bleed Training, and 3) continue to support local humanitarian and charitable initiatives such as the Kabala School of the Blind. 

 MISSION ACHIEVEMENTS:

Patient Care:

  • Performed 63 procedures on 60 patients
  • Performed short term follow up and treatment/consultation for post-operative issues – 98% follow up rate. 


Teaching:

  • 20 hours of hands-on teaching, demonstrations, case discussions between ISHI and local RNs.
  • Participation of local anesthesia and surgical staff in numerous operative cases for continuing surgical education and bidirectional knowledge exchange.
  • 201 Stop The Bleed Training certificates were given to 151 high school students at Loma High School, 19 teachers, the principal, 20 police officers, and 11 nurses. In total 201 people were taught hemorrhage control techniques over 4 days.  
  • Daily  knowledge exchange  with the local CRNA and Anesthesia CHO
  • Continued knowledge exchange between ISHI nurses and local ward nurses


Community

  • Donation of funds to the Kabala School of the blind from  Debbie Livingston art work
  • Donations from multiple team members



 LOCAL TEAM IN SIERRA LEONE:
Peter Conteh - Hosted team at the guesthouse in Kabala and provided everything necessary for the ISHI team to thrive. 
Dr. Stephen Fornie – Regional Director. Approved and supported   the ISHI mission
Dr. Tarawalie – Medical superintendent, KGH, responsible for providing the space, stuff, staff and patients needed to complete the mission.
Dr. Samba Jalloh – Freetown medical house officer, GSHead CEO. Instrumental in communication and logistics ahead of, during, and after the mission, and participated in patient care.
Lamin Marah CHO – Local anesthetist, working intimately with the ISHI team in the preoperative phase and in the OR with the anesthesia team, as well as in follow-up of patients post-operatively.
Bona Turay, CHO – CHO at KGH.
Alpha Samura, CHO – surgical health officer in Makeni, worked with ISHI team in operative theater. 
 MISSION VOLUNTEERS:
Surgical Team: David H. Livingston MD, Ziad C. Sifri MD, Deviney A. Rattigan MD, Francisco Alvarado MD, Ryan M. Benson MD, Julia Riccardi MD, Yaagnik Kosuri MD
Anesthesia Team: Amber Zendner MD, Joy Quitiquit CRNA
Pre-Operative Care: Tracey Bradley RN, Esme Da Costa RN
OR Nurse/Tech: Michael Yusi RN, Nini Coban RN
Post-Anesthesia Care: Kia Redmon RN
Ward Care: Kimberly Gray RN, Kristin Knowles RN
Community Outreach: Debbie Livingston
Follow Up Team: Kimberly Gray RN, Kristin Knowles RN, Ryan Benson MD, Julia Riccardi MD
Mission Coordinator & Logistics Support: Ziad Sifri, Jessica Schwartz, William Zendner, Ryan Benson, Julia Riccardi
 

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