Anaesthetic equipment is a vital part of any surgery; without it patients can face complications that could be fatal if they are not monitored correctly. Each year, Project Harar's team of international surgeons and anaesthetists, help 50 patients with severe facial disfigurements undergo life-changing surgery that can take up to 5 hours to complete. A Patient Monitor is vital to monitor our patients CO2 and respiratory rates, ensuring safer surgeries for all our patients.
Our Complex Surgeries are performed in a government hospital in central Addis Ababa, the facilities are poor and anaesthetic machines are limited. The previous monitor is out-of-date and as a result patients undergoing surgery are at a higher risk of suffering complications in surgery due to the lack of monitoring. An up-to-date patient monitor is safer for our patients while they undergo life-changing and complicated facial surgery.
A new patient monitoring machine would enable operations taking place at Yekatit-12 hospital in Addis Ababa to be more carefully monitored and will create a safer environment for patients and staff during our Complex Surgical Mission. Without this machine there is a higher risk of easily avoidable complications.
Project Harar's 50 complex patients will go into surgery knowing they will be carefully monitored throughout and will be less likely to experience any complications. These surgeries will ultimately improve their quality of life and increase their opportunities in the future. Working alongside local Ethiopian doctors and surgeons builds local surgical capacity and as a result of our past intervention, Ethiopia now has its first female plastic surgeon. We hope to build capacity further in 2019.
