Day Eight: Exploring Saigon, Flying Home, Reflection

After being in Vietnam for a week, it opened up my mind to a completely different view of life that you don't get living in the small town of Los Altos. Seeing how happy people were living in such poverty was very humbling, and it makes one appreciate what they have. This trip has taught me that while I may have been raised in a family where I have two loving parents, a free education, food, clothes, and a roof over my head, I can't let that be taken for granted, and because I was handed all of this, it is one of my duties to help and support those who need it. I am sad to leave Vietnam and the great people that I have met here, and I can't wait to join IEP again. If anyone would like to support the club I created at Los Altos High School to support IEP, called A Step in the Right Direction, please visit http://www.gofundme.com/1ts8s4 and donate.

After an 8 am breakfast with the Mullens, we decided to explore the main indoor market in Saigon, which was a few blocks from our hotel. The market was huge, hot, and very fun. We got a few gifts for  family while we were there, and explored some of the food market as well. After about an hour in the market, we headed back to the hotel to get a ride to the airport.

We got our ride to the airport, which took around 30 minutes, and loaded ourselves onto a few carts and checked in. The 3 hour flight to Tapei, Taiwan, left at 1 pm. After a two hour layover, our 10 hour flight from Taiwan to SFO left.

Ziggy on the bus over to the airport in Saigon.

Checking in at the airport! 

View of Saigon from the plane as we were taking off. That's smog, not fog.

Day Seven: Last Day in Can Tho, Bus Ride to Saigon

The last day of surgery was very exciting. Today we went up to the hospital with the rest of the team to see the early morning surgeries, which turned out to be all of them because the IEP doctors work very fast, and finished 5 operations by noon. Before surgeries began, Jenni and I went up to the recovery rooms on the 5th floor to hand out pain medications and antibiotics to the patients we operated on last night and their family. The patients complained of đau, meaning pain, which is normal for patients who had no pain medications for a whole night after surgery. The hospital does offer shots of morphine for patients to purchase, but most of them cannot afford it.

Here's the little boy from yesterday in recovery. He isn't feeling much pain, and was very happy to see Jenni and I, especially since we had candy! Everyone's parents were extremely thankful to us and the surgeons for the work that they have done, and the success of the surgeries helped to calm those still waiting.

Schedule for OR 1 on day 2

Schedule for OR 2. Unfortunately, about 6 surgeries had to be canceled because the hospital made a new rule that no children under 5 years old could be operated on.

X-Rays of the man above.

Hard at work or hardly working?

WARNING: These next images may be disturbing to some viewers. There is more blogging to read, so scroll down!

Don't worry, its iodine, not blood.

After the surgeries were finished, which, due to the amazing work of all of the doctors, happened before lunch, we congregated to the cafeteria for my last meal in Can Tho. After lunch, my dad and I handed out the extra candy in the recovery ward, and headed back to the hotel.

 As you can see, all of the patients were happy to see us, and were glad that they had the opportunity to get their operation. We then went back to our hotel and made the long 4 hour trek to Saigon with the Mullens Family. Tomorrow we travel out of Vietnam and back to the US.

Day Six: First Day of Operations

Today was a late start for the Albrights, as Dr. Lehnert advised us to skip the madness of the early morning, as setting up the Operating Room would be very, very hectic. Since we aren't doctors, we are not needed as much in this stage anyways. When we arrived around 10:30 am, we had a very hard time finding the OR, and it was hard to communicate with the Vietnamese Nurses. We hopelessly wandered around the hospital for an hour before we decided to just wait for the crew in the cafeteria for lunch at 12. We kept ourselves busy organizing images from yesterday and making silly faces.

After lunch came, my dad went to negotiate pricing with the hospital director and I got into my scrubs with the nurses. I can now add being in an operating room onto my list of firsts I experienced this trip. When I first got into Dr. Lehnert's room, I felt a bit woosy, as they had to administer to drugs through a needle in the spine, and were cleaning everything with iodine, which got me a little light headed. Needles are not my thing. This experience re-affirmed the fact that I do not want to be a surgeon when I grow up! Once the surgery began, I was okay and no longer had to step outside so much. The surgeries that I saw were a 30 year old woman getting a TAL (Tedon Achilles Lengthening) and a lateral closing wedge (she used to walk on the side of her foot, but will now be able to walk on the bottom of it), a 22 year old man getting a triple, wedge, and TAL (he had a similar problem), and a 7 year old boy getting a TAL and a posterior capsule release (he walked on the outside of both of his feet a little bit). The last surgery was simple and only took around 30 minutes in all. It was great to experience the operating room and see how everything happened and what it was like. Even though I couldn't help with the surgery, I kept myself busy as a "nurse", helping the doctors tie their clothes and handing them things like gauze when needed. 

This poor little guy was left in the hallway all by himself for about an hour before his surgery, with no parents or nurse to watch him. Many of the nurses left the doors open in the operating room, and he could hear all of the dreadful sounds of surgery, not making him feel any more comfortable. I sat with him along with our translator "G". A few tears trickled down his cheek while he was waiting for surgery, but he stayed strong and eventually fell asleep. Luckily, his surgery was very short, easy, and it went very well.

Nurse Jenni and Susie organizing medications.