One of the Mission Critical pieces of equipment is the Autoclave used for the sterilization of equipment

The autoclave is essential for modern surgery

A crucial piece of modern surgery is a unit called the autoclave. For those unfamiliar with it, think of a big pressure cooker for surgical tools. For those who are familiar with it, you know that without autoclaves we might as well go back to surgery during the civil war (or close to it). The autoclave at San Juan Bosch Hospital is only five years old but because of how the water is treated in the DR, the autoclave’s heating elements corroded and needed replacing. Each heating element costs $500 and there are nine heating elements, which is a big pinch in the hospital’s budget. At the start of the week the autoclave was only functioning sporadically which meant a frustrating slowdown for the schedule. This year we have an additional room for surgeries but we weren’t using it because of the autoclave issues. Luckily we were able to get approval to invest in the machine and now we are back up and running at full capacity. Not only that, it helps the hospital too. “It’s one thing that is mission critical that we can do to help everyone,” said a happy Paul Duwelius.