Free flap

I hope this photo is not too much for those of you who don't like the sight of blood, but today I have seen and photographed the most amazing operation and wanted to include it as my blip.

The first part of the morning was spent seeing and photographing new patients who had turned up at the hospital after hearing about Facing Africa. Some will be operated on next week, others had to be referred to other hospitals as their problems were outside our remit.

In the theatre where I spent most of the day, the operation being performed was for a young man with NOMA. It was called a "radial artery free flap". Basically a flap of skin from the forearm was cut out with blood vessels attached and this was stitched in to cover the defect in his face. A skin graft was then taken from his leg to cover the gap left on his arm. The blood vessels were joined up using an operating microscope (see extra). The surgeons are called Kelvin and Dan - awesome skill :-)

We had two ladies visiting from Ethiopiaid to see what Facing Africa does. One of them had never been in theatre before and she was amazed to watch all this.

Spent some time afterwards on the wards, checking up on the patients and then a couple of hours processing all my photos.

Tonight we all went out for a pizza, with a base made of teff, an Ethiopian grain high in protein and iron. Then a quick check on the post op patients before bed. The 9pm curfew seems to have been a rumour (or a threat, or something).