Thursday, October 10, 2013

I've Got 99 Problems...


And the first is an EKG. A month ago, the software for the EKG gave up the ghost. You can see the rhythm on the laptop screen, but when you press print, it conjures a mysterious error message. As the only person experienced with PCs, they tapped me to fix it on my first day at work in Africa.

Fortunately, the manual lists common problems with step-by-step solutions. Even better, the list includes our mystery error. Unfortunately, the fix doesn’t work. Of course, we’ve lost the disks, so reinstalling is a no-go. Everything else I’ve tried just sent me around in circles. I’d hand it over to an IT specialist, except it seems there aren’t any in this part of Tanzania.

As a stopgap, I taught the nurse how to take screenshots so we can at least have some record of the 12 lead EKGs. If anyone knows anyone who knows anything about Cardiosoft (by GE Healthcare), I could sure use a consult. My resources to fix this problem are as follows:
1. Me
2. A finicky Internet connection
3. The Cardiosoft setup on a Dell Inspiron 1505
4. $25

Dr. Frank, The Boss, rated this problem as a 5/7 in terms of importance. If we can’t print EKG’s, we can’t do telemedicine with cardiologists in the US. This is problematic because Dr. Reed, our volunteer cardiologist, leaves on Saturday. As I said, if you know anyone who can help troubleshoot, send him or her the link to this post or my contact info.

In the meantime… GIRAFFE!


11 comments:

  1. Have you tried turning it off and then back on again?

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    1. Yep. That's usually item number 3 on my troubleshooting checklist.

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  2. Additionally, I was very disappointed to be unable to see your giraffe picture. Perhaps, as you are trying to troubleshoot your piece of life-saving medical equipment, you could figure out why your pictures are not uploading.

    Always glad to be helpful,
    Joseph

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    1. I noticed yesterday that the picture was up for a while, and then it went down again. Not very high on my list, but I'll take a look when I can.

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    2. I think I figured out the picture problem. Let me know if you still can't see them. Apparently you can't just copy and paste into blogger.

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  3. Make Charlie fix it. He does IT and EKGs. Perfect job for him.

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    1. I'll see if Charlie is interested. That's a good idea.

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  4. Have you tried contacting the software maker? They may be able to assist even though you no longer have the disks - especially with some of the google tools now available that allows them to see your screen shots and/or take over the computer remotely. In any event, good luck. Please keep on keeping us informed.

    Dad

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    1. I sent a tech support request to the manufacturer, but they haven't gotten back to me. I'll give it another day and try calling them. The time zone difference can be problematic, and I also can't block out any time for certain to work on it because you never know when a heart patient will need an EKG.

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