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Last week we were assigned to work at Hospital Arco Iris in the Emergency Room. Hospital Arco Iris is a lot different than Hospital del Nino. It is a private hospital that was originally built through a German foundation, and then over the years, they have added more and more onto the hospital. They have a lot more resources than Hospital del Nino and updated facilities. For instance, on my first day there were two bus accidents and many patients with head, neck, and back injuries. Every single patient was automatically sent to get an MRI done and any relevant x-rays. Hospital del Nino doesn’t even have a MRI or a CAT scan machine. Another big difference is the age of the doctors. In the ER, almost all the doctors were in their twenties. Like in Europe, in Bolivia once a person finishes high school, they can then go straight into medical school and do not have to do their undergraduate before. I mainly worked with an intern, Patti, who was in her last year of medical school and she was the same age as me.
On the first day, I pretty much just observed the doctor, the nurses,
Our favorite patient
This little boy had a pretty bad dog bite on his face that had become infected. We had to help Patti clean it out which was very painful for him :( We gave him a monkey bandaide afterwards and he fell in love with Mary Beth and I. and the patients, read over the patient charts, and transported patients to the MRI or x-ray unit. The following day, Mary Beth came and joined me in the ER and we assisted Patti with all her procedures. Unlike in the states, the doctor requires a patient who has received stitches to come in every two days or every day depending on the likeliness of infection, to have the wound cleaned and re-dressed. Infections are very common because of people’s living and working conditions, and their lack or resources to keep care of the injury themselves. Therefore, as Patti thoroughly cleaned the wound, Mary Beth and I assisted her. Since there were the two bus accidents the day before and various other injuries, we were very busy. Once again, the lack of education was very apparent in the hospital. One woman who had stitches from her pinky finger to her thumb was in a lot of pain when Patti was cleaning the wound because it had become infected. Instead of trusting the doctor that it was infected, she kept insisting that their was glass in her hand from when her hand initially went through the car window. However, after x-rays and
The Ambulance
Arco Iris means rainbow which explains the ambulance. examination the day before, Patti told her that there was no glass in her hand, but she still didn’t believe her.
Mary Beth and I started off our third day with an ambulance ride. We were asked to go with the driver to pick up a patient that couldn’t walk. Unlike in the states, the cars do not move out of the way when there is an ambulance. It is almost the complete opposite. After about a half an hour in traffic, we arrived at the house, which was up an inclined alley. After carrying the stretcher up the alley, I stayed with it so it wouldn’t roll down the hill and Mary Beth went with the driver to get the patient. The next thing I know, Mary Beth, the driver, and a few of the family members were carrying the patient by a blanket. It was unlike anything a paramedic would have done in the states. When the driver and I took the patient back to the house later in the day, I found out that the patient had to be carried up a spiral staircase in this tiny apartment. It was definitely quite the experience.
After
our ambulance journey, Mary Beth and I helped Patti examine two pregnant women that had come in. The hospital doesn’t really have a labor and delivery, rather the patients are checked into the ER and then they go up to OB/GYN when it gets near to having their baby. Lastly, there was a patient who suffered some kind of explosion at work and had three broken fingers. Unfortunately for the patient, we had to clean his cuts before he could get stitches or a cast and of course they don’t have any kind of anesthesia and his hand were very dirty.
After about a half an hour of scrubbing and cleaning, we were finished at Hospital Arco Iris. Since we didn’t have this rotation of Thursday, Mary Beth, Aisha, and I had decided to miss Friday and head to Peru on Thursday for the weekend!
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Johaan
non-member comment
Nice
You look beautiful honey! Lucky little boy :)