I C U

The day before yesterday I shooting and running down the hall after the Surgeon and the nurse towards an emergency call. A baby who they had operated on earlier in the day had problems. When we got there, they were doing CPR as the heart rate had gone way down. The Surgeon had to operate right there and then. People were rushing about getting things trying to help save this baby’s life. The Surgeon had to drain the blood from around his heart to release the pressure. I shot nearly the entire operation for 35mins non stop.

The first time I watched open heart surgery a week ago it was an eye opener. Forget Red Bull or coffee to wake you up. When I watched, my eyes didn’t blink.

There is a lot of prepping involved. One main prep is done by the Paediatric Anaethetist (Alistar). Another is to use and manage the Profusion machine (Stan). This basically acts like a heart during the operation. The heart is drained of blood and you can see it go white as it does. During this prep you also have to add a dosage of Protamine Sulphate to the blood that is going through the body so it clots easier during surgery, then after surgery you add Heparin Sodium to bring it back to it’s normal state. The actual surgery isn’t very long at all, about half an hour depending.

Needless to say, watching the surgery is pretty amazing and I have no conception to base it on. I have never even seen a stitch done prior to this.

The 8 month old baby who we brought back from Nablus, Jamal, is a sweet child full of life and smiles. Me and him get on pretty well. We documented his surgery and now he is safely in recovery. It’s really good to see him smile again. I have become very fond of him.

In the pictures below there is one of a boy with the video camera we are shooting on. He is the one who was shot in Gaza while playing football with his friend. He is a wilful and happy boy who can handle a camera. We say he’s the future of Al Jazerra.

There are also pictures on actual surgery though not in detail. I do have very detailed pictures of surgery (heart pumping and all) but I realize most people can’t bare to see them. Other ones are of Alistair (with my Leica, he is also a very keen photographer and owns more cameras than myself), in the background Warren (Paediatric nurse). There is also a picture with residents Ahmed and Mohhamed who are class comedians and warm people who also are known to make us the dark Arabic coffee in the morning. In the end, 17 children were operated on within 7 days and 17 lives were saved. Some of these children are pictured here in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit).

The baby who was called for emergency in the morning did live. But it was said that it may have been due to the fact that the dosage of Protamine’was wrong. This was probably not due to anybody’s mistake, simply because they haven’t been trained properly to give the right dosage. This is why PCRF are here as well, to give training to the staff so they can carry out these procedures and monitor post surgery.

Some of the pictures may not be palatable for some so bear with it or don't look at all.

The two surgeries featured here is of Jamal, just before, during and after. The other is of the baby who nearly didn’t make it, once during surgery and twice in ICU.