A Team, A Christmas Tree, and A Universal Language – 9/22
On Monday morning, the Askenasy Team hit the ground running, fueling themselves with eggs, black refried beans, and fruit. Today’s topic during worship was community and friendship. We are reminded by Brian to come together as a team to help our Guatemalan amigos. Just as Charlie Brown’s friends worked together transform his small Christmas tree, we are united together to help and cure. Whether it was grabbing extra medical supplies, organizing patient charts, or performing supraclavicular nerve blocks, we helped give patients their “Christmas tree”. With four ‘salones’ running simultaneously, the team of doctors, nurses, and translators tackled transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP), inguinal hernias, mass excision, and laparoscopic cholecystectomies. With limited medical supplies, the team brainstormed creative alternative approaches, substituting equipment and reusing sterile tools when possible. In Pre-Op, with the help of some translators, nurses practiced their Spanish while patients practiced their English. By evening, the both teams discovered that laughter was the universal language that can bring us closer to our amigos.
Caitlyn Nguyen
