History in the making at SBAH 🩻

Exciting developments at Steve this week.. as our favourites Dr Mlabateki and Dr Jansen Van Vuuren made history on Tuesday the 05/06. The first baby doped at the new MRI suite !!

First collaboration between MRI and Anaesthesia was a post op 2 year old neurosurgery patient - post tumor excision to assess Prognosis / need for radiotherapy.

(Off the record😆 from Dr Jansen Van Vuuren “The drip was a nightmare. The airway was a nightmare. The ventilation was a nightmare. But let me not complain” 🫠)

I bothered Dr Jansen Van Vuuren to give us the inside scoop on the day and what they did, and he happily obliged 🙏 thank you 😭💜..

How did you find the new facility? ..New facility is gorgeous. The MRI suite itself has mood lighting 😂. Incredibly posh. On par if not fancier than private. There's a whole second MRI on the way. Budget for doctors? Dololo. Budget for MRI? Two please (wow, are we getting NHI ready, could this be it)

What are some of the Challenges you guys faced? .. They're still figuring out their stock situation. But they have mostly everything. You just need to wait for their Sr to arrive. If an igel is your SGA of choice, take with you or you'll have to use whatever they can provide.

What works? .. everything. lovely staff. Lovely unit!

Please hand us with some crucial advice for anyone placed there in the near future..

• They have scheduled drugs there. No need to take.
• They have long length circuits.

• If you're not familiar with the draeger MRI anaesthesia machine be sure to go early to familiarize yourself. Especially where you'll be reading your capno. It doesn't digitally limit the machine to one gas. Rather there's a physical latch that locks the gas not in use from being opened. Look out for it.
• If no sats: The sats probe's light source and sensor, and the housing the finger or toe goes into are separate things that fit together. Be sure the sensor hasn't rotated to face away from the light source inside the housing.
• For increased efficiency get your consultanting dept to place a drip if possible. MRI radiographers will skin you alive if you get blood on anything.

• Prep emergency drugs like for theatre.

We look forward to a future of new remote anaesthesia and learning new skills and expanding our knowledge beyond finger debridements 🤣..

have a great week further !! and thanks again to Dr Jansen Van Vuuren for being so keen to share with us and contributing to the newsletter ! Really means so much 💜🙏