Craig - Today I was back in the delivery room. It turned out to be a slow day, there were no scheduled C-sections or other surgeries and none of the pregnant women were very far along in labor. I was directed towards the pediatric surgery operating rooms where I had the chance to watch a two year old child who needed to have an infected drain removed from his left kidney. He had undergone a previous surgery to try and repair a congenital renal defect and although the operation was a success an infection set in and he needed an emergency repair. The boy was underweight due to insufficient nutrition and had been suffering from extreme hypertension and fever, along with a host of problems related to kidney failure. Around 11:00 I left the OR and met Mark in the pediatric emergency room. We were met by Wendy, a 5th year medical student we ran into on Monday night in the delivery room. She had invited us to attend a class with her and turned out to be a great experience. Most of the medical terms are similar in English and Spanish so we were able to follow along fairly well. After class I returned to the burn clinic to play with the kids and help feed them lunch.
Pete - Today was a pretty slow day in the PICU/NICU, but all the babies that had previously been intubated were now breathing through masks. Small steps toward success are always welcome according to the staff. I later attended a lecture on bacterial meningitis before going back to monitor the babies and read a few more histories. Dr. Montoy then taught me how to tell if there is a collapsed lung with an x-ray. After making rounds one last time, I left to go to the burn center and play with the kids for awhile. In the burn unit today I played with little Juan (see picture), and I got to see him walk for the first time since he's been in the burn clinic. To see Juan walking brought me to tears, as he has burns on both legs that left him in bed or seated for the past 2 weeks. Even though I get called "El Gordo" (the fat) by him daily, today I was reminded that the human side of medicine is what drives us to enter the field.
Mark - I spent this morning in the pediatric emergency room once again. When I got there, the 4 students that I normally follow around were being asked questions about electrolite levels based on height and weight in children. It was tough to follow along with my terrible Spanish but I got the jist of what was going on. Patient wise, it was a pretty busy morning. I was told many times by the attending doctor to listen to many of the childrens' heart and lung sounds. One of the children that came is was a two year old that had burns completely covering his backside. With the few Spanish words that I have learned, I figured out that he was burned with hot water. It was really tough to watch him lie on his belly crying non-stop. He was sent over to the burn center so I'm pretty sure that we will be able to follow his progress over the next week. At 11 Craig and I joined a 5th year medical student in her class. We met her on Monday night in the labor and delivery room and she was adamant that we came with her to one of her classes. The class was presented with a patient history and we were asked to come up with a differential diagnosis for the patient. It was definitely a fun learning experience.
CJ - I spent today in the burn clinic again. It was great. When we got to the hospital, a bunch of the kids were awake and watching TV. I played with little Marta and Jhoselin for a little bit. Eventually the children from the Albergue came in. One of the little boys took up shop sitting in my lap in front of the TV (playing Disney dubbed in Spanish) and proceeded to fall asleep for a little bit. On a side note, I had no clue what was going on on the TV, either. My Spanish has progressed a little bit, but not nearly enough to decipher TV!
Shortly thereafter, Dr. Romero and the other workers in the clinic began to get ready to perform surgery on a little girl. She was an outpatient for the day, getting an expander put in the back of her thigh. The front of her thigh has a large keloid (a scar from the burns). The expander allows the skin to be stretched over a few months. Eventually, the scar tissue can be removed while the enlarged skin is stretched over to replace the wound. This helps reduce complications from reduced movements, etc. Dr. Romero did a great job today putting the expander in. Sumaya, a nurse from Australia who is also volunteering in the clinic, showed me how to scrub into surgery correctly (which I failed quite a few times). I didn't get to actually scrub in today, but observing the surgery was great.
No comments:
Post a Comment