Third world anesthesia

A doc has invented an easy to use anesthesia machine....

well, we mainly used local anesthesia or spinal anesthesia...(did you know you can do a Caesarian section under local anesthesia? )

In one hospital, we had a nurse anesthetist, which helped, and the above machine could be used.

But in another hospital, we had only a few nurses. So we used a ketamine drip...ketamine is known for being a club drug, or as an animal tranquillizer. But originally it was made for humans. The advantage is that it does not lower blood pressure or cause a lot of respiratory depression...but it can cause terrible nightmares in humans. The trick is to combine it with a dose of valium at the end of surgery, so they don't remember the nightmares.

We didn't have a trained nurse, so when we did surgery, we had a drip (IV) of ketamine...we had the floor scrubber change the dosage. If the person started moving, we increased the rate. If the breathing went too slow, or the blood started going dark, we stopped it for a few minutes.

One time, shortly after we increased it, we needed an instrument, and the floor scrubber went out to fetch it.. and the person almost stopped breathing. Since I was the second surgeon, I broke scrub (i.e. left the sterile part of the surgery) and stopped the IV, and bagged him (gave him oxygen with a bag) until he breathed on his own.

It was the only "complication" of ketamine during my eight months at that hospital...