The RNICU, eh... Neonatología

We have successfully completed the clinical portion of our Chile trip, and are now on to the vacation portion, which you will hear about soon.
We wanted to share about the last 2 clinical days (Mon & Tues). We spent time in the Neonatal unit at the Universidad de Católica with Dr. Jorge Fabres, who completed a fellowship in Birmingham under our own Dr. Wally Carlo. It was great to meet Dr. Fabres, who we had heard a lot about. It was good to talk to someone who knew and understood Birmingham, and who was familiar with our NICU. Dr. Fabres was kind enough to show us around the neonatal unit and treat us to lunch! He shared stories of his days as a fellow running from hospital to hospital, the old RNICU, and of course stories of Dr. Carlo.

Dr. Fabres teaching during rounds

The NICU shared many common features of the unit we know and love in Birmingham. It is a 28 bed unit, ~10-15 in the highest acuity unit with the remainder in the step-down "feeder and grower" units. They had several infants on the ventilator and 2 on the oscillator.

The fellow intubating a baby

We also got to watch a c-section and resuscitation of a 30 week neonate which was pretty cool. Peds arrived very early to the section (sound familiar?) so we got to see most of the process. Dr. Fabres explained that the university is participating in an international resuscitation study which was comparing two different types of bag mask ventilation. The resuscitation was very similar to the NRP we are used to with a few differences (if you're curious, ask us). Apgars were assigned and the baby boy was transferred to the unit and placed on nasal CPAP. The resuscitation hallway was just outside the OR and the whole L&D unit was just across the hall from the NICU.

The resuscitation room

We also got to watch the resident and fellow put in umbilical lines...

After our long day in the NICU we treated ourselves to a fancy dinner at Aqui esta Coco, reported by our trusty guidebook to be one of the best culinary treats in Santiago. We were not disappointed! I'm sure you're all tired of seeing food pictures, but we are going to continue to share! Keep in mind that in most cases the picture does not do the meal justice.

Coming up next are stories of our adventures in San Pedro de Atacama... Stay tuned because the bus ride adventures in Viña were mere kiddy rides compared to the desert "fun."