We’ve almost finished inventory at Ras Desta Hospital! Like Zewditu, it went a lot more quickly than planned. It’s taken two days to inventory almost all of the equipment in the hospital. Admittedly it was a little easier because some devices were locked in storage rooms, as Ras Desta is undergoing a LOT of construction. We’ll leave our leftover tags with the biomedical technicians so they can inventory those devices when the construction is finished.

The head biomedical technician at Ras Desta, Girma, is super gung-ho about the inventory project! After we showed him how to tag devices he wanted to do them all. We told him that was really nice, but BTB probably wouldn’t appreciate if they flew us out here just to watch other people work! It’s encouraging because hopefully he will maintain the inventory system after we’re gone.

The types of medical equipment we’ve found have been surprisingly different from Zewditu. For one, Ras Desta has a very sophisticated ophthalmology department, and even an OR specifically for eye surgery. All of the equipment was donated brand-new by a Korean organization. It’s interesting because when you think of developing world health problems it’s usually things like TB, malaria, premature babies, etc. However, 90% of people living with impaired sight are in the developing world; 80% of these cases could be prevented or cured (cited below). Just goes to show that there are needs that many people aren’t even aware of. Thankfully, Ras Desta hospital will be able to prevent some of these visual impairment cases.

Cite: World Health Organization, Visual Impairment and Blindness Factsheet, June 2012, http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs282/en/.

Also, one of our BTB mentors, Veronica Leautaud, came to visit us this week! We all went out to an Ethiopian restaurant that had traditional food and dancing. Ethiopian food consists of lots of spicy stews that you scoop up with injera, a pancake-like bread. It takes practice to eat without getting messy, and for once we got to eat with people who struggle as much as we do!