And while in the past few months it seems citrus has only been causing discord, today we found a rare instance of a how one element of the citrus plant has caused cooperation between contentious parties. Negotiations for government to take over 100% of the Universal Health Services are still underway. While no one is quite sure how it will work, unofficially there's seems to be some kind of friendly trial taking place. That's all we could conclude when he we heard that the KHMH borrowed equipment from Universal to save a 4 year old girl from a potentially deadly situation. Alfonso Noble has the story.
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
Its a tiny thing, the source of plant life, at least for an orange tree but over the weekend this small orange seed was a big thing, one that almost cost the life of 4 year old Veronica Sanchez. On Friday evening she was eating an orange when she ingested a seed; but she didn't swallow it, instead it slipped into the childs bronchial passage and became lodged there.
Adelma Salam, Mother
"She was eating an orange, an orange she was eating and then from there she choked and she couldn't catch her breath. But her father pushed his hand in her mouth and so she vomited out the pulp and everything was okay but one hour and a half after that, she couldn't catch her breath. She couldn't breathe, she coughed and as she started to cough, she pushed her hand in her mouth to try and vomit and she couldn't breathe. She screamed and the doctors came and checked her and it is then they found out that it was in her lungs."
Dr. Lavita Zaiden,
"The had the orange seed in the right bronchial track. So what we did is went in under anesthesia and we removed the orange seed from the right bronchious."
E.N.T. Doctors Raciel Battle and Lavita Zaiden were the attending physicians. They performed surgery on 4-year-old Veronica Sanchez. With the use of equipment similar to this, the doctors managed to remove the seed and allowed the child
to breath freely.
Dr. Lavita Zaiden,
"We need the rigid broncho-scopy to get into the bronchial area, we can't just used any forceps, the child wouldn't be alive."
Alfonso Noble,
So what does the equipment allow you all to do?
Dr. Lavita Zaiden,
"It allows us to get into the bronchial area...and have a direction vision of the foreign object or the foreign body and then directly just remove it."
Dr. Raciel Battle,
"Under general anesthesia, we do an endoscopy and pass the endoscopes through the larynx so though the same instrument, the baby breathes and the anesthesia release gives the anesthesia. So use the forceps to locate the seed or foreign body and we remove it."
And while today the doctors can easily describe the procedure, Director of Medical Services at the KHMH Dr. Khalid Gazi says the procedure would not have been possible had they not borrowed equipment from Universal Health Services.
Dr. Khalid Ghazy, KHMH
"We did approach the Universal Health Services for the equipment and we got a positive response immediately and that also helped us a lot. We approached the private institution to help us in this situation. We did get a good response and we thank the people of Universal to lend us the equipment. I cannot say it is only KHMH, both the private and public team were involved in this situation and actually I think that is what we need - for the care of patients now at KHMH or any patient who comes to this institution or to a private institution. We are open for our specialty to participate in the private cases and also we are inviting the private people to also participate in our cases.
We are trying to get the human resources and the proper equipment at the same time. That was the management team's decision yes, to try to have our own equipment because an emergency like doesn't happen often but it can be fatal and you don't want to jeopardize a four year old baby because you don't have it and you have to go and borrow these things."
And while the KHMH cannot go about borrowing equipment, Adelma Salam, Veronica's mother is grateful that they did because today this 4 year old is sitting in a hospital bed reading a book, because institutional differences were set aside to ensure better care for patients.
Adelma Salam,
"I feel good. I really appreciate what they did for my daughter because I thought my daughter would die with the way how they explained her condition so I thank them and I thank the Good Lord for her life, I really appreciate what they did for her."
So for at least this one case there was no private or public facility, just one child with an urgent need and a system flexible enough to make her better.
The ENT wing of the KHMH is newly established with both doctors Batlle and Zayden being resident doctors in that department.
