El primer día en el Hospitalito

Well folks, it has finally happened. I have just completed my first day in the hospitalito. Had a bit of a Cook's tour initially and met a lot of staff, most of whom I cannot now remember their names. Everyone seems pretty cool and the hospitalito is open and spacey. There is not that much equipment here so perhaps I won't need too much time after all.

Today was a 'bring out your dead' equipment day and I ended up with;
Three Baxter infusion pumps,
Two oxygen concentrators,
Two NPB40 pulse oximeters,
An aspirator (that some dopey person had allowed fluid to be sucked into)
A Genius 3000 tympanic thermometer, and
A LifePak 7 defibrillator.

Before I give you the boring details I would like you to know that Henry was my offsider all day. He is an electrician and I am staying with him at his house. When I go he will be da man for biomedical issues. He is a fast learner and I reckon given six months with a mentor he would be brilliant.

OK, these are the boring bits suitable only for other techies.
Managed to get two of the infusion pumps working (haven't looked at the third yet).

Of the two pulse oximeters, one has been fixed using parts from the other. The photo below shows why I couldn't fix both.

The aspirator took some work to clean out. All the fluids had dried and it was a mess. In the end goodness prevailed and now it just needs a new bit of tubing.

The tympanic thermometer only needed a clean on the tip because (surprise surprise) someone had put it into an ear without a probe cover. I don't have a calibrator here but when I tested it on myself I got 36.6. Near enough😏

And the defib? Well, the monitor and printer do not work but the defib itself is fine. I brought a small monophasic tester with me that was donated by Engineering World Health so I could very defibs. After some time the problem was tracked to a faulty -12V rail and I think there is a blown 7912 regulator. I can buy these at Jaycar for about $1.20 but god knows where you can get them here. Henry said he doesn't know of anywhere to buy electronic components. I may have to ask Chris to go to Jaycar for me and bring it with her when she comes. I can only hope that that is the only problem. It feels pretty good doing component level repairs again?

So, all in all it has been a very productive and satisfying day. The hospitalito is nice, the work has been challenging and rewarding, and Henry is great company and really switched on. One thing Henry is in the process of doing is installing a 28kVA solar/electric system that is expected to save them about $10,000 a year in electricity. The batteries and inverters were donated by a north American company and the panels were donated by a company in Perth! ¡Qué bueno!

Time to kick back now, I think. It's been a good day.



This is Henry and me after fixing our first machine.



This is the room they have given me to use as a workshop. Heaps of room!



A wide-open LifePak 7. I have the service manual on my iPad in the foreground - thanks to Dave Gilbert at Medtronic.



This is why I couldn't fix one of the pulse oximeters.



And finally, the battery banks for the solar panels with the inverters in the background.

¡Adios amigos!

Location:Santiago Atitlán