Ben here again, writing from Quinta de las Flores Hotel in Antigua. Our day began at 630am with a wonderful breakfast before moving to the nearby gazebo for our morning devotional led by Anesthesiologist Dr. Magdy Khalil.
Dr. Khalil’s devotional meeting was perfect for mentally preparing ourselves as we headed into our first day of work at Obras, stating that we all should make an effort to stay in the present moment and approach our work with altruistic intention so as to make the most of this experience and feel confident in the capacity of our work for good.
A morning roll call and informative meeting followed the devotional, prepping our team members for our first time in Obras hospital and first time meeting the patients. At 8am the team began the roughly 10 minute walk through the streets of Antigua, walking over beautiful cobblestones and taking in the mountainous environment surrounding the city, with views of dormant and active volcanic mountains.
Once we arrived at Obras hospital, our Faith in Practice staff members Paola and Jaime gave a tour and then we shortly changed into scrubs and got to work! Today’s work mostly consisted of preparation for our work Monday through Thursday, however, preparation for surgery (especially total joint replacements) entails meticulous preparation and collaboration between every member of our team, as well as several Obras hospital staff. Our team member representatives from Zimmer Biomet sorted and prepared the instruments and implants for the week, surgeons and anesthesiologists triaged 27 different patients and our OR team (scrub technicians and RNs) set up the operating rooms over the course of the day.
Around 4pm the team trickled out of the hospital in small groups, walking right back to the hotel but enjoying the atypically sunny and warm day we were blessed with. An aspect I loved about the hospital was that a lot of natural light was allowed to come in through various courtyards and even stained glass windows, depicting biblical stories and statues of biblical figures and artwork in every corner. The patients were lovely and appreciative for our time, and we are all looking forward to continuing to make a difference over the next few days.
Back at the Quinta de las Flores, the team relaxed for a couple of hours enjoying the sun and the pool before a great dinner and a great sunset over the mountains. We certainly look forward to the next four days of life-changing work ahead of us, and I look forward to checking back in tomorrow to update y’all at home about it as well!
All the best,
Ben
To support this team and their commitment to our patients visit https://donate.faithinpractice.org/team/373443
