Peru Trip Continued

We continued to perform surgery in Lima for five days. Several unfortunate events occurred that resulted in our inability to help two individuals. The first happened to a nine year old girl that had a congenital abnormality of her jaw. The left portion of her mandible had grown normally but the right side had not which left her with an angled lower jaw and made eating difficult. We brought her in on her appointed day and put her to sleep. For sterility reasons some of the equipment we brought did not get opened until we were ready to use it. This was the case with the pediatric plate set that we needed for this young lady. Upon opening it we realized that it had been mislabeled and was in fact a duplicate adult plate set and would not work for what we needed to do. Unfortunately the only thing that we could do was wake her up without doing anything. The second event occurred on our last day in Lima. There was a young man who had been involved in a motor vehicle accident that had left his face disfigured and scarred and all previous attempts to reconstruct his face had failed. The afternoon of his surgery one of the nurses came running into the operating room and told us that there had been some miscommunication and that the patient had just eaten lunch. In surgery and anesthesia a full stomach can be deadly in the form of regurgitation and aspiration. The minimum amount of time that you can perform elective surgery after someone has eaten is six hours. We had to tell the young man that we would not be able to fix his face for another year. He was heartbroken as was his family. Other than those two instances things went quite well. We were able to do twelve surgeries some of which were quite extensive. One patient required a blood transfusion and before she could get it the blood had to be paid for and the family was required to donate as many units as the patient would need. I have no doubt that if a patient needed blood and family members were not accessible to pay and donate that the patient would bleed to death on the table. The rules are very different in foreign countries.  As we packed up our things and prepared to leave one desperate mother approached me and said, “Oh please, don’t you have time to fix my son before you go.” The desperation and pleading in her voice tore at me heart but there was nothing I could do. I put my arm around her quivering shoulders and told her that we would be back again. She gave a weak nod but her dark eyes never met mine. There is much of suffering in the world today that we who have been blessed enough to enjoy freedom and prosperity have never tasted. I have come to realize how much I take for granted and how very blessed I am.
After our last surgical day in Lima we flew to Cuzco, about 570 miles away. You have to fly there because a bus ride would take over 24 hours due to the incredible terrain you have to traverse to get there. Upon arriving in Cuzco you immediately feel the altitude (over 11000 ft). Most of our group got headaches and a bit nauseated. In the hotel everyone was given Coca tea which helped to alleviate the symptoms. Coca leaves are the main ingredient in modern day cocaine. I assure you that there was no high involved in drinking the tea but the Incans noticed that when the leaves were chewed they could work longer and were less hungry and the leaves have long been used for their medicinal properties. That being said I was not silly enough to think about attempting to bring any home least some airport narcotic hound reveal me to authorities who might not believe my purely scientific interest in the plant. We went on a quick tour of Cuzco and the next day set out for Ollantaytambo where we spent the day seeing patients. People came from all over the surrounding area to be seen by the dentists and doctors that were traveling with the group. So in that small town we met up with the rest of the group and I saw patients while some of the others translated or helped with the dental cases. It was also one of the highlights of the trip. There were many people that came to be seen that spoke only Qetchua, the native language of the Incas that has no written form.  It was very interesting to see some of the differences and the similarities that existed between these simple patients and the patients that I would see in clinics in the states.  There were some ruins in Ollantaytambo that we saw before boarding a train that would take us to Aguas Calientes, the closest city to Machu Picchu, which is only accessible by train. I sat across from one of the doctors in our group that is 6 feet 6 inches for the two and a half hour train ride. Needless to say we were great friends by the time we got to the city (the seats faced each other and were made for little Incan bodies).
The next morning was cloudy and rainy as we set out for Machu Picchu. I had been separated from my group and was put in a different hotel away from the people that I knew. We had to be on buses by 5am so I went alone. We boarded giant tour buses that were driven by crazy stunt drivers that could do unnatural things with a 80 foot long tour bus. We traveled up switchbacks to the top of the mountain were the ruins lay. The sun was just coming out and the morning mist lay like a thick blanket around all but the very peaks of the mountains. It was an awe inspiring site. I was grateful for the chance to take it in by myself. I climbed to the top of Wuana Picchu which is the tall mountain that you see in almost all of the photos of the ruins. On top I had a spectacular view of the surrounding landscape which was visible only sporadically through the clouds. The day was Sunday and so on top of that majestic mountain I listened to some conference talks and some church music on my ipod and truly felt like I was in a special place. I met up with some of the members of my group after I got off the mountain and spent the rest of the day exploring the wonder of the world that is Machu Picchu.  Pictures do not do justice to the place which can only be truly appreciated in person. We flew back to Lima the next day and then came home. Despite the incredible wonders that I had seen the greatest site that I ever saw were the faces of my family waiting for me at the airport.

I am trying to figure out how to attach a powerpoint presentation I did for my family with pictures.