We are currently packing up our bags to head to Lake Titicaca for the weekend, but before we take off, here's an update on how the rest of our week has gone...
On Wednesday night, we returned to the hospital to work in the Pediatric ER. While it was not an exciting night for traumas, Henry managed to brush up on his Spanish, Paige mastered her gauze folding skills, and Rachel explained the American medical school program to the on-call orthopaedist. That's about it...
On Thursday, Paige and Henry headed back to the Adult ER to work with Jorge where they got to see a man with bleeding hemorrhoids, a partially paralyzed woman, and a man who had sliced off his finger. Overall, both Paige and Henry totally dominated the ER that morning. Meanwhile, in the burn center, Rachel scrubbed in on another surgery. After showing her what to do, Dr. Romero stood back and watched as Rachel skillfully completed a skin graft on a child's leg...checking her work afterwards of course. The patient had third degree burns on her thighs, so we took skin from her calves to place over the affected area on her thighs. It was quite an experience for a rising 2nd year medical student. On Thursday afternoon, Paige and Rachel headed to the Cancha to buy toys to donate to the kids at the burn center, which we will be delivering on Monday morning. (After having tested them out ourselves, of course.) In other exciting news, Paige appeared in a picture on the front page of one of the Bolivian news papers in an article about the patient who had attempted suicide. So she's practically famous here...
This morning marked the end of our first, and very successful, week at the hospital in Cochabamba. Henry and Paige shadowed Dr. Farrel in the ob/gyn ER and learned about the miracle of birth. Dr. Farrel taught them how to measure a pregnant woman's stomach and cervix to determine how far along she is, and also how to measure dilation to know when to send a woman to the delivery room. Elbow deep in placenta all day... On a completely different note, Rachel went back to the burn center to observe 2 more surgeries. In the first, the child had been burned on his knee, so a graft was taken from the thigh to place over the affected area. The second patient of the morning had burned her hand and her fingers were stuck together and to her palm. Dr. Romero separated the fingers from eachother and from the palm, drilled pins into the 4 fingers, and bandaged up the girl's hand to heal. While Rachel did not get to assist in today's surgeries, she snapped a lot of great pictures and learned a lot from Dr. Romero. In fact, she dazzled him so much with her wit and charm that he invited her to spend every day assisting him in the OR until she leaves for the states...and then gave her a cookie.
Now its off to dinner...and then our 11 hour bus ride to the lake.
Superlatives:
Henry: Most likely to be the last one ready in the morning
Paige: Most likely to appear in the newspaper
Rachel: Most likely to find a Bolivian husband
On Wednesday night, we returned to the hospital to work in the Pediatric ER. While it was not an exciting night for traumas, Henry managed to brush up on his Spanish, Paige mastered her gauze folding skills, and Rachel explained the American medical school program to the on-call orthopaedist. That's about it...
On Thursday, Paige and Henry headed back to the Adult ER to work with Jorge where they got to see a man with bleeding hemorrhoids, a partially paralyzed woman, and a man who had sliced off his finger. Overall, both Paige and Henry totally dominated the ER that morning. Meanwhile, in the burn center, Rachel scrubbed in on another surgery. After showing her what to do, Dr. Romero stood back and watched as Rachel skillfully completed a skin graft on a child's leg...checking her work afterwards of course. The patient had third degree burns on her thighs, so we took skin from her calves to place over the affected area on her thighs. It was quite an experience for a rising 2nd year medical student. On Thursday afternoon, Paige and Rachel headed to the Cancha to buy toys to donate to the kids at the burn center, which we will be delivering on Monday morning. (After having tested them out ourselves, of course.) In other exciting news, Paige appeared in a picture on the front page of one of the Bolivian news papers in an article about the patient who had attempted suicide. So she's practically famous here...
This morning marked the end of our first, and very successful, week at the hospital in Cochabamba. Henry and Paige shadowed Dr. Farrel in the ob/gyn ER and learned about the miracle of birth. Dr. Farrel taught them how to measure a pregnant woman's stomach and cervix to determine how far along she is, and also how to measure dilation to know when to send a woman to the delivery room. Elbow deep in placenta all day... On a completely different note, Rachel went back to the burn center to observe 2 more surgeries. In the first, the child had been burned on his knee, so a graft was taken from the thigh to place over the affected area. The second patient of the morning had burned her hand and her fingers were stuck together and to her palm. Dr. Romero separated the fingers from eachother and from the palm, drilled pins into the 4 fingers, and bandaged up the girl's hand to heal. While Rachel did not get to assist in today's surgeries, she snapped a lot of great pictures and learned a lot from Dr. Romero. In fact, she dazzled him so much with her wit and charm that he invited her to spend every day assisting him in the OR until she leaves for the states...and then gave her a cookie.
Now its off to dinner...and then our 11 hour bus ride to the lake.
Superlatives:
Henry: Most likely to be the last one ready in the morning
Paige: Most likely to appear in the newspaper
Rachel: Most likely to find a Bolivian husband
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