Peru In Pictures

Here are some of the images that I have wanted to post. I have excluded most of the gross surgery pictures but you can still get a pretty good idea of what we were doing.

This is an impressive image of a lady with a tumor that was compressing on her optic nerve which we operated on with the Peruvian neurosurgery team.

This is the image of the young man below who was in a traumatic accident two years previous

We were going to rebuild this guys nose and fix his mouth so that he could close it. However he was scheduled for surgery on our last day but ate lunch and so we could not fix him. He was obviously very upset but we will do it next year.

This is the image of the infant pictured below she has a cleft nasal septum instead of a cleft palate.

We were not prepared to be able to do a procedure this complicated. This infant would be best served by a group like the Shriner's who would bring her and her family to the states until she was fully recovered. The guy holding her is Dr. Dean one of the surgeons.

This patient has a huge underbite that we fixed. She looked incredible afterward.

This is her preoperatively

This is her postoperatively.

This young lady has a very small lower jaw and essentially no chin. The surgeons lengthened her lower jaw and took hip grafts to make her a chin. The next picture is of her surgery and may be a little gross to some. Proceed with caution.

You can see the hardware that holds her newly extended jaw.

This young lady has Curzon Syndrome which causes this characterist look. We fractured her lower orbits and pulled them forward to protect her eyes from trauma. The images of this procedure are pretty graphic and as this is a family blog I will not post them.

This is the image of a lady who's jaw had to be rebuilt after an accident. They took grafts from her hip to rebuild the missing portion

This is what she looked like preoperatively.

There was an observation window over the OR so you could watch what has happening.

Me, Brandon (the nurse anesthetist I came with) and a Peruvian anesthesia resident

Doing my anesthesia thing.

Me, Brandon and the anesthesia team at the hospital.

This is the city of Cuzco which sits at about 11500 feet. You have a pretty good headache and some people get nauseated until they get used to it

This is an Incan made wall that was discovered under a Spanish built cathedral ofter the outer walls had collapsed after an earthquake. Apparently the Spanish tried to cover up the old Incan traditions and temples with their own.

The famous joints that are perfectly fitted.

We went on a city tour of Cuzco which included a local market. This is Coca leaves used in making cocaine. The locals make a tea with it that helps with altitude sickness and makes you feel full without eating.

The diet is very full of grains and starches. Protein like meat is pretty expensive.

They grow a lot of produce as well.

Apparently Peru claims the origin of the potato. They claim over 1000 different varieties.

Certainly gives a new spin on "out of the horse's mouth". They boil this in a traditional soup which I missed out on sampling.

Taken out of the window of our tour bus on the way to a city called Ollantaytambo where we saw patients and prepared to go to Macchu Picchu.

The city of Ollantaytambo, again taken out the bus window.

The lines of people waiting when we arrived. There were two lines, one for dental care and another for general medical care. I was in the latter. Notice the very bright traditional colors and the top hat type headwear. Many of the patients needed interpreters to translate Quetchua into Spanish. Quetchua is the native Incan tongue and has no written form.

This is the dental side. They ran a bunch of chairs at the same time.

This is me cleaning a venous stasis ulcer on the medical side.

Me with the fields of Allantaytambo, the red field is quinuoa.

This is a ruin in Ollantaytambo.

I like this picture with the huge Andes in the background.

The switchback road to Macchu Picchu which bus drivers take at breakneck speed

Macchu Picchu in the clouds. The big mountain in the background is Wuanna Picchu which I climbed. It rained the whole day and the ruins were covered in clouds a lot of the time.

Impressive stairway.

Beautiful Andes with the Urubamba river below.

Pretty flower on the top of Wuanna Picchu

The trapezoidal doorways common in Incan architecture.

Crazy!

Incan lawn mowers.

Surreal!

The bridge, we couldn't cross it but I was more worried about the steps coming out of the wall. I wouldn't use them.

Picture of the ruins taken from the Sun Gate at the end of the Incan Trail.

Kids at a school in Aguas Calientes where we took crayons and other supplies.

Me and an Incan maiden with Pachaquetek in the background who was the Incan ruler that spread the Incan empire.