The 1st Operating room table we purchased & delivered was ruined in just a few short months. As we investigated the reason we realized that any equipment we donate would be ruined unless we changed the cleaning process at the hospital. EVERYTHING is cleaned with clorox which is deadly to delicate expensive surgical equipment and almost all metals! The stainless steel sinks are blue and plumbing pipes are barely working. No wonder their equipment is in such bad condition!. Understandably, resources are scarce for the public hospitals in Guatemala- Government funding is erratic so clorox is available & cheap.

We have some great used instruments from ECHN and some that OSSA purchased. We have made “sets” for different surgical departments with the great help of some of ECHN’s finest OR nurses--but will not be bringing them until we change the sterile processing procedures!

Maintaining Sterile surgical instruments requires a lot more work without the automation we have in the US. In San Marcos every instrument is washed by hand and we realized we needed to help improve sterile processing using world standards. https://wfhss.com/. This World Federation Hospital Sterilization Science has on line classes in Spanish and a textbook on Sterile Processing in Spanish- We purchased 2 for starters. This is a very big undertaking! Check back to see how (if) we progress.

Not much room to work

work area

surgical instrument cleaning sink