From sunrise to sunset, SANA’s Reem S. Abu-Rustum travelled across the most magnificent scenary in Lebanon to majestic Baalbek, the site of ancient Roman Temples and land of ancient civilizations and Lebanese heritage, for a needs assessment and a medical/educational mission with the inspiring MSF team.

The day commenced by meeting the MSF team in their main offices in Baalbek from which all headed to the MSF clinic in Baalbek. The team arrived to a clinic packed with patients from all ages, some of whom had arrived as early as 6 am in order to be seen and waited in the warm friendly hallway.

The team commenced by setting up the “scanning room”, securing a stretcher and setting up SANA’s ultrasound machine. Subsequently, the team was joined by Dr. Huda, a wonderful Ob/Gyn from Syria, who works closely with MSF.

Systematically and methodically, MSF’s Drs. Kate and Dr. Huda together with SANA’s Dr. Reem, saw numerous patients, in a non-stop manner, and carried out thorough sonographic evaluations. The patients were most appreciative at getting reassurrances as to the health of their off-spring.

Though it was a most gratifying day, the team was most surprised at the huge turnout and was forced to stop accepting patients around 3 pm due to the long commutes back home along icy roads. However, they promised the unseen patients to be seen at a future visit.

After the team members discussed their day’s impressions, it was felt that future collaboration between SANA and the MSF Baalbek clinic would be a most positive future step, and plans were made for the next mission.

SANA returned home amidst a striking sunset despite the thick fog with numerous imprinted images from a phenomenal day.

SANA wishes to whole-heartedly thank MSF for its support and belief in SANA and its mission, and for giving SANA endless unforgettable opportunities.

It was an absolutely freezing day. And despite the weather and the fact that it was a no-classes review week at the Lebanese University, all of our dedicated students showed up bright and early for our session. Only 1 student couldn’t make it from the snow.

The morning commenced with student midwife Lina Al Morhabi sharing her SANA experience with her colleagues. She excitedly told them about her scanning, interaction with patients and all that she had learned this past Tuesday.  Her classmates listened with great interest. The main topic today was recognizing normal fetal anatomy and the respective planes that are used for obtaining the biometric measurements.

Again, it was a most interactive session where a major focus was for the students to correctly determine fetal lie based on various sonographic images and the proper identification of key anatomic structures. The students were called to the board to demonstrate fetal lie and interpret various sonographic images. This was not the simplest notion for some of the students. As such, using a baby doll, the students were able to model various fetal presentations and lies in order to reach the correct answer. This turned into a game and was repeated many times until the entire class was able to arrive at the correct answer!

At the end of the session, the students planned next week’s observatory/hands-on days with SANA…