A hearty 'Thanks!'

While it’s fresh in my mind, I have to send a hearty ‘Thanks!’ out to my sponsors of this trip – which will all be discussed specifically in later posts, and include – B.Braun, SonoSite, Civco, the American Society of Anesthesiology, John Muir Medical Center and Sequoia Surgery Center.

A recently added sponsor has been Civco. They produce products for the ultrasound imaging industry and are headquartered in Iowa – which is quite fitting, since it’s merely a few miles from where I’ll be studying chronic pain at the University of Iowa beginning this July.

SonoSite, whom I’ve been working with for several months through their rep extraordinaire, Kim Roberts, very generously loaned me a portable ultrasound machine to take with me to Rwanda. Ultrasound uses sound waves (at frequencies above the human ear’s capacity to hear), which penetrate the skin, bounce off deeper tissues and give a picture of what structures lie beneath. It’s much the same way a navy submarine uses Sonar to map the oceans depths. Most of you who are blessed with children are familiar with ultrasound in the obstetric setting.

The use of ultrasound in the field of regional anesthesia (including nerve blocks) is currently witnessing an explosion of interest and research. Ultrasound imaging enables the clinician to accurately locate nerves. Once located, these nerves can be targets for specific therapies, including the blockade of pain transmission with local anesthetics.

Although ultrasound technology is currently quite expensive and perhaps beyond the financial reach of Rwandan hospitals and physicians, my hopes are to use the educational power of real-time imaging to illustrate the anatomy of nerve location. Once the anesthesiologists have a feel and confidence for locating nerves, they can work without the ultrasound machine, using cheaper, existing technologies.

SonoSite expressed shipped the ultrasound system to my door a week before departure – perfect! Sherry Guthrie, a fantastic ultrasound technician who works for SonoSite to educate medical professionals, visited with me at the Sequoia Surgery Center early in the week. In the same way the character ‘Q’ educated James Bond with each new gadget, Sherry showed me the important functions of the SonoSite MicoMaxx system. Unlike James Bond, I didn't get a Aston-Martin coupe and there was no ‘red’ button to operate an emergency ejection seat.

After getting to know the system at work on real patients, I soon realized that I didn’t have any of the necessary sterile packs and ultrasound transmission goop (gel) to accompany the system in Rwanda. Enter Civco…

On Wednesday, just 3 days before my departure, I sent a brief ‘Help Me!’ plea to the company’s central email contact address. Within 12 hours, I had a phone call from Amy King at Civco, asking me what I needed. By Friday afternoon, a massive package from Civco arrived on my doorstep in Berkeley. Inside, I found a care package that would have made any mother proud – bottles of ultrasound goop, sterile barriers, a huge bag of Civco promotional writing pens (which the Rwandan staff will love), and some company literature illustrating their products - all for absolutely no charge! Go Civco!

PS.

How could I possibly forget Lisa Craig from B-Braun! Lisa has been a tremendous supporter of medical outreach trips, supplying the ever-important nerve-blocking needles and electrical stimulators. She first assisted me when I visited Ghana back in 2003. I guess when one make everything so easy, like Lisa always seems to do, you run the risk of slipping past recognition!