Day 43 7/4/13 (That danged nebulizer, much to paint, fixing a hotplate (which actually works now!), going into the OR, leaving the OR on my own two legs, more inventory and talking to the director of another hospital about work prospects!)

Today was a normal morning: 7 AM, cold shower, scrambled eggs, B&R, bread and jelly and a banana milk smoothie. After getting to the hospital Dan and I started working on that danged nebulizer again to try and get it better before taking it back to the nurses. Again I opened the stupid case and tried to take apart the motor (so we could clean the commutator, but the screw started stripped before we could remove it and clean (so no on that one -.-)). We then decided to hit the motor again with some WD-40 and close that shiznit back up again (which was just as much of a problem as before with those danged rubber edges for the outside of the transformer in the case. Today seemed to be a tad more difficult to close the case than yesterday, but no matter, Dan and I got that case shut and the screws back in. We then decided to return the nebulizer to the emergency ward (not the emergency room, just the ward for shock and other injuries (which was just basically two rooms with some beds, so it didn’t seem all that emergency like (recovery rooms probably))). Anyways so Dan and I brought the neb back to the head nurse who hooked it and tried the nebulizer for flow rates and it was too dang low. FUTZ THAT NEBULIZER (almost as bad as that hotplate) BECAUSE I TOOK THAT DANGED THING APART AND DID JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING TO GET THAT THING WORKING AND IT IS NOT PUTTING OUT! -.- // nebulizer (luckily the emergency area has another nebulizer that works better than this one (so I have some more time to take the failure of motor apart and clean the crud out of that commutator somehow)). Anyways after that Dan and I wanted to do an inventory of the rest of the medical equipment in the ward for the inventory we have to do for EWH and to find old/broken pieces of equipment. Anyways the nurse lady seemed decently nice although perhaps a tick annoyed by our presence and our inability to fix that nebulizer, but she showed us the shock room. She also showed us about 4 different IV holders and beds that we have to sand the rust off of and then paint for her -.-// needing a better rust grinder (instead of a file (but we eventually bought one after the workday)). Also in the room was a defib (with the sketchiest paddle cables I’ve ever seen with the plastic outer insulation already gone so the inner wires look like hemp badly wound around some random insulated wires) and one of those ear examining scopes and a balance with an unscrewed back stand for the balancing of weights (quite handy I imagine). Anyways after that Dan and I took one of the IV stands back to work on (although we never touched the unit today) and just generally marveled at how much work we have with sanding and painting those beds and IV stands. Dan and I decided to continue our work of the inventory and ask around the other parts of the hospital for their tech (we decided against checking out the x-ray units) and headed for the sanitation area (with the autoclaves). We noted the two autoclaves not working (one missing a memory card and the other just making a bad seal and looking absolutely horrible) and entered the sanitation area to talk to Rosa (the head of the room (or the woman that just happened to be the boss at the time we were there)). Anyways she told us about the other two autoclaves and we took down the details (and made a note to return later and do some preventative maintenance on them). We also asked her if there was anything we could work on and she pointed to the sketchy looking water cooler outside and she also gave us a dead hotplate (where’s my holy water?). Dan and I took the dead junk back to the workshop to see what was up with these units. We opened the hotplate and immediately noted the connection to the power cord was broken in one spot. (Luckily I don’t think anyone had gotten a shock from this as the wire for the power was just flopping around inside of the metal baseplate.)

Before fixing the second hotplate (look at that strain relief!)

Ready to burn!

Anyways we didn't have any crimp terminals or twist terminals to make the connection safely, so I headed out to check the local ferreterias (hardware stores) for the twist terminals (and to also look for a wire brush attachment for the drill that Marlon showed us (hoping to speed up the process of removing the rust from all those beds and IV stands)). I went to all three of the ferreterias (and even the solar store) in San Carlos that we know of and the only one that had the twist terminals was the small one by the bus stop (that dude seems to help us out all the time). Even the larger Constrúmas one didn't have the twist terminals! Anyways I got those and also found the wire brush for later at the Constrúmas place (to check the size after I had the drill). I wondered how anyone could do household wiring without those twist terminals as they are basically a necessity for wiring switches etc. While I was gone Dan had sanded the baseplate to get the rust off and prep the unit for reconnecting the wire. The twist terminals worked fantastically! They were quite possibly the best purchase I made since getting here because they worked just as I had hoped (and looked pretty snazzy in their dark blue color nicely making the connections). I put the power cord through the unit and added a strain relief (why the cord had broken before as the wire was just looped around inside) and we tried the continuity of the heater element (which luckily checked out). After closing the unit and standing back, we plugged it in and turned it on. No sparks, just straight up intense heat coming off that bad boy! BAM! Fixed that shiznit! Finally something we can feel good about actually really fixing! After that Dan and I took back the hot plate to see Rosa excited that we actually fixed it! Also during this time we talked to Gato about getting some bulbs for the light in the baby room (and he said wait until 2 PM where we would be heading into the OR to change some bulbs (O.o)). Also during this time we hooked up with the engineer to work on lubricating the viewing plate on the microscope and the gear mechanism for that. It took quite some time and went until about 12:40 PM, but eventually Dan and the engineer got it working. Lunch was the standard fare over at the house (where Barney is apparently paying for us for lunch) with some B&R, chicken and noodles and plantains (with this local fruit drink). Today’s TV fare for lunch was a small part of Harry Potter 1 where Ron and Harry walk late into Professor McGonagall’s class as she transforms from a cat and calls them out and this Canadian show about climbing Mount Everest. This show, surprisingly called Everest, had like 2 people die in the time we were watching from this huge avalanche that froze one dude and then how these peeps were trying to cross an abyss with a ladder and then all of a sudden huge volcanic earthquakes took over and caused huge chucks of the edges to erode and fall all around (resulting in the camera dude becoming a popsicle (filmed as a series not a documentary) and another guy barely making an escape from a small crevice. The other members of the team were then arguing about what to do next and whether or not to continue that trip I’m pretty sure. After lunch Dan and I did some more work with the engineer about the microscope (not sure this happened because I was pretty bored) and then I worked a bit on that water cooler (and tested it to find that it turns on, but dumps water out the side when water is poured in (this is because the hose to the cold water spigot was disconnected from the cooling filter (-.- that could be a problem guys)). Anyways I reconnected that and tried the machine again and it seems to work (although the two spigots are bad (and the hot water one is completely busted off). After that Dan and I just tinkered around on small projects and did some more inventory of the other wings of the hospital (more in the abandoned wing it seems (although it’s bustling in the morning) and found some ultrasound machines and a physical rehab place with a heart rate monitor and this IR light and this electrotherapy thing. The dude in the ultrasound room was named Constantine and talked to me about how one of the probes was busted and the techs had tried to replace it with a hard plastic cover for the crystals (where there had been a rubber) and now the probe created artifacts on the screen and is basically unusable. He also spent quite a long time describing how ultrasounds work to me (even though I already had a decent idea, but he was friendly and willing to talk so I listened). Dan and I had to get scrubbed up to go into the OR (I had to leave my watch with Rosa to get some scrubs to enter the OR). 

Best in class

Keep in mind that we were going into the OR to change out some surgical light bulbs and no major (or any for that matter) surgeries were in progress during this time. So we put the scrubs on and the boots and the hats and headed in. It was quite cool in the ORs (two main ORs with a main area for traffic to the rooms and for the staff to get extra meds and clothes etc. The one OR was actually pretty decent (I wasn’t sure what to expect judging by elsewhere in the hospital) but the room looked quite clean with a table and two surgical lights over it (with tables and apparatuses around (anesthesia machines, aspirators, ESU etc). The two surgical lights here were both missing a 24V 60 Watt bulb (the same ones as in the baby room’s lamp (which is what Dan and I thought we could get bulbs for)). Anyways the main lady running the ORs and staging room gave us three bulbs for the two in the one OR and the other OR room’s lamp. We had to unscrew the plate on the inside of the surgical light and pop out the bulb and holder and replace the bulb and holder (the problem was that the holder had the wrong type of connector on it (so we had to cut off the old connector, strip the wire and put a new crimp connector female end on it (as it had been a male end). The new bulbs worked though after we put them in! BAM! FIX! The other light in the other room was also just as simple. The other OR room also had this crazy looking anesthesia machine with lots of controls and anesthetic agents on it and even a screen which I think was for the ECG or patient monitor. Anyways after I put the last bulb in, we left and disrobed from the scrubs (wheh! Made it into the OR without being under tremendous pressure to fix something with a person lying on the table!).

After fixing the lights

After that Dan and I basically packed up left for the day after cleaning up some tools and getting parts for other projects. We also talked to the director of the hospital in a nearby municipality (about an hour and 40 minutes from San Carlos) and he said that we could go over there for a few days to fix some of the equipment there (dentist chair, computers, microscope etc) as we don’t have much here to do with Barney and his crew working on stuff. He also said that he could get us there to work and work out the necessary papers for us to work there! BAM! That’s awesome! Hopefully we can do that and help him out there! After work we went and bought a wire brush attachment and have been chilling. Random note: this soap opera called “Amores Verdaderos” seems to be about rich people problems with girls and guys living in this villa type house and having love problems and such. It’s kinda of hilarious how pathetic the people are in some cases on that show. Anyways today’s July 4^th, so we might have to go out to La Champra to party a bit but we’ll see. Happy July 4^th and keep on carrying on folks!