Saturday Update

Friday night was a great one for the kids, as it was quiet in the ICU and everybody progressed nicely. Both our team and the UNC team had fairly sedate evenings, and they were well-deserved with the amount of work we've done here in the first week. In addition to setting up the OR and the ICU, we've done 7 OR cases (or "theatre" cases, as they are known here), over 110 echocardiograms, multiple teaching sessions with nurses, surgeons, and pediatric residents, and a balloon atrial septostomy. It's even more significant when you consider that our team has been passing around some variety of flu bug that we can't seem to shake. Still, so far, so good.

We are preparing for our Saturday OR case right now, a VSD. There's no screening today, so we can catch up on some other things, like posting pictures. Oh, and taking care of our own - our perfusionist just got a nasty electric shock from one of the bypass pumps. Perhaps we will choose to use another one...

Anyway, here are a number of photos from the week's activities.





Reuben, Craig, Stephanie, and Bill share a moment in the operating room.

Stephanie, Laura, and Lowell participate in a "group echo" in the Special Care Unit (NICU) on Thursday. Laura did the real work, while Lowell held the machine and Stephanie kept the baby from crying (and took pictures, of course).