Health and Science

This morning I had a second visit with the Angkor Hospital for children. The Operating Theatre Director, Mr. Chhoy Chan, gave me a tour of their sterile processing area and Operating Room. Apparently I had dropped off so many instruments that they simply haven’t had a chance to organize them and put them in rotation yet, but the consensus there was that I had brought a lot of fantastic things that will help them create new sets and fix some old ones. Nice to hear!

Their sterile processing department (SPD) area is small. Incredibly small. Like imagine a college dorm room. Yeah, that small. They actually do have quite a few instruments, but many are specialized and can’t be used for every type of case. Also, many are just not in good repair.

They had all the same elements of SPD you would see in any hospital: Initial Decontamination, Drying, Packaging, Sterilization, and Storage. Granted, their facility is not the standard you would find in an American hospital, but it was extremely well organized for the amount of space and the type of equipment they have. Keep in mind that they process instruments through there all the time. They run about 5-8 cases a day in that one room, and many of the general items need to be used from one case to the next!

The Operating Room was much roomier, but they had to sacrifice part of the space for more supply storage. Unlike in the US, you can’t simply wheel something into the hall for temporary (or longer) keeping. The halls are literally teeming with people. On one hand it’s hard to see so many people in need, but that quickly diminishes when you realize they are getting excellent care for little or no money.

Mr. Bill Housworth is the new Executive Director. He’s actually an American, I was a bit surprised! Most of the volunteers I have seen in Cambodia come from other countries.

After chatting with him and Chan I was able to get a better assessment of the things they might find useful. I’ll have several folks to talk to when I get back to Texas, and I can email the hospital to verify if they need something. It certainly appears to be a burgeoning humanitarian effort for me. Maybe I can make it really roll quickly.

Just before lunch we stopped by the Artisan's D'Angkor, a facility that trains Cambodians to be artists using wood and stone carving, as well as silk design. Since they take a credit card, I personally helped stimulate the local economy for another year in a row.

After lunch we were driving back to the hotel and spotted Mr. Wayne the policeman on a motorcycle. We ended up following him for a little ways. It was fun to watch all of the local people on the street turn their heads and look at him as he drove by. He truly is a local celebrity!

Class at Khnar Thmei was quite fun. After a little trial and error, we were able to get an egg to float on a jar of salt water that was inside a jug of regular water. If it’s still there tomorrow I’ll take a picture. We had to rush out since it was looking like hard rain.

I briefly touched on tomorrow’s topic: Air Pressure. They were picking up on it quickly, but still excited to see the experiment. I think seeing another one work is instilling confidence in them!