What an Amazing and Educational day I had yesterday!

After checking out a couple of things at the hospital, I left Bansang at about 9.30 in the company of Robert Neighbour from Gloustervent, manufacturers of Anaesthesia machine and various other medical equipment, heading for the Clinic at Basse Santa Su. Basse is about as far east in Gambia as you go on tarmac before hitting the Senegalese border. The broad plan was for Robert to service their Gloustervent whilst I checked out a few other items as requested by Dr David Southall. However some of the devices I had been asked to look at were in fact Robert’s Oxygen concentrators, so instead of “going it alone” I acted as a second pair of hands for Robert… I’m not too sure whether I helped or hindered, but it was very certainly a learning experience… and learning from the best is always a great experience.

One look at Basse Clinics Gloustervent was enough to tell Robert that it was in a bad state and the further we looked into it and dismantled it the worse it got! Once the top was removed it was obvious that someone had been fiddling with it and had taken out the main circuit board, so no big surprise that it didn’t work then ! Robert travels with a rucksack full of spare parts for all his 3^rd world equipment and it didn’t take long for him to strip out the tangles remains and replace virtually the entire insides of the unit with nice new parts; let’s hope they don’t also go walkies before the Cuban Anaesthetist returns to work!  Various other parts were also replaced whilst I listened, learned, cleaned, handed across tools and generally tried to assist without getting in his way.

Time then to move on to the oxygen concentrators. A procession of grubby battered machines were wheeled into the otherwise empty room and in turn each was plugged in and tested, serviced and repaired. Interestingly, these were machines that we had been asked to look at on our first trip to Bansang in 2005; we didn’t have a clue! Now it seems I am to be supplied with a heap of spare parts next time I fly out and will actually be putting into practise many of the new things I have learnt by repairing a few more of these vital machines..

Our main failure was on the air conditioning units which we didn’t manage to fix, our suspicion being that they needed re-gassing. One question, however that I forgot to ask was “have they ever worked?” as although the units switched on and went through the correct motions, the amount of air coming from them was surprisingly low and it was only an afterthought that it could be either that the supply voltage was very low or that they had been connected with the polarity reversed. The Ultra sound unit was also beyond our help needing a new probe which Robert is going to try to source when he get back to the UK.

With Robert flying home on Saturday we all joined him at Paradise Lodge for dinner and enjoyed an evening of his medical anecdotes. I find it quite incredible that a man with an engineering and Aeronautical background should have forged such a niche in 3^rd world medicine and be so obviously well respected throughout vast swathes of the globe. As well as running a very successful company he undertakes huge amounts of charitable work worldwide, is fantastic company and one of the most entertaining people I have had the pleasure to meet in a long time.