Machete Surgery in San Jose!

Well, we are almost done with our time in San Jose this brigade and it has been an exciting trip. We have seen many patients and learned a lot from the communities surrounding us. To top off our medical experience, Suzanne and I had a memorable afternoon yesterday. During our second to last medical session we had a 15 year old boy who walked 5 hours to see us. He was walking through a field and a snake landed on his arm so he used his machete to kill it--unfortunately he also lacerated his left hand. When he arrived at our clinic he was unable to extend his 3-5th fingers at all! After some investigation on our part we found 3 severed tendons and after much lidocaine and searching we found the other half of 2 of the tendons. We sutured it together and when the pt was leaving he was able to extend all his fingers slightly! We are hoping that he will follow-up with Carmen (the nurse here in San Jose) and eventually have full use of his left hand again.
The sun is now wishing us a good trip to Tela and hopefully the highway strike will not impede our departure!
-Meg