August 27th

From Terry Dietrich, MD
Today was really a fun day.  We had 8 cases scheduled and did them all.  Our first case was a lady with a grapefruit sized mass in her left shoulder.  It felt like a lipoma.  I had Ben do the incision and then he dissected the whole thing out.  It was a pretty amazing experience for a college student.  He then assisted me on my third ankle fusion this week.  It went well.  He put in a couple of the screws.  Our last case was a wrist fusion.  He put in most of the screws.  He did really well.  He has very steady hands.  Todd did 2 more arthroscopies and Ed scrubbed on them both and actually did the second one.  He is totally wired about the experience.  Our work here at the hospital is over for the week.  It has been a very worthwhile experience for all of us.

Scott’s wealthy Haitian friend, Jean Marc, came to HAH today and brought some construction people.  They looked at the new wing project and the OR and agree completely with Scott and me that it should be finished to appeal to the wealthy.  It would include putting in a more appealing tile.  They did all of the very nice work on Jean Marc’s home that Scott has visited.  It would be great to have it finished to really have high end appeal.  We can offer services to the well to do and the income could subsidize care for the poor.  Scott thinks that the necessary money would be relatively easy to raise.  They are going to give us an estimate by Monday.  I’m going to have Scott take them over to the house across the street and have them also give us some ideas about how to make it more livable