The sun is up, the sky is blue, it's beautiful, and so are you
Boom.
Another guest blog from Quagmire.
Hello again:
Given a choice between the monsoon rains and the Muslim/Hindu religious riots, I prefer the riots. The riots were relatively well-contained and the burning buses were kind of cool. Apparently some vandals desecrated the statue of the late wife of a major religious leader here and that simply will not stand. Despite the distractions, my clinical experience is finally in full-swing.
Last Friday I made the journey to Virar, the village up north where I was to spend all of last week. Though I only stayed one day, it was really cool. I sat in on a delivery. Because they have no choice, the village women are all opting for natural delivery. Also, episiotomy is pretty much mandatory for everyone, despite the fact that most of the babies are born weighing about 4 pounds. The episiotomy was also essentially natural. Some lidocaine was given to the poor woman, but the doctors didn't wait for it to start acting before cutting. Regardless, the baby was born and seemed healthy enough. They wrapped it up like a burrito and whisked it out of the delivery room to show the father. I think the mother is scheduled to see the kid sometime next week.
I spent the weekend in Goa, which is a big resort area on the west coast of India south of Mumbai. The weekend consisted of lounging on the beach sipping Kingfisher beer, visiting Portuguese military forts built in the 1600's and wishing I had a surf board. It reminded me a lot of California and made me miss my adopted homeland on the Pacific.
Today was my first day at one of the public hospitals in urban Mumbai.
I spent the morning "scrubbed" into Surgery. I expected to have to wash and wash and wrap and gown and mask-up before surgery. Nope, I just put on a little hat, a mask and in I went. Not that it mattered, I'm pretty sure I was the cleanest person in the room. Ironically I was the only person not to touch the patient. I wonder if I will ever again have the experience of working in an OR while barefoot. We did three surgeries in a row this morning, an appendectomy, a burned arm reconstruction and an excision of a pilonodial sinus. I'm not sure, but I think in the burn reconstruction surgery, the surgeon was kind of winging it. He and the Anesthesiologist were oft discussing how much tissue to remove to restore complete arm function for the patient. I think even the orderlies were asked their opinions on the matter.
Tonight I go to a private practice clinic in one of the slums of Mumbai. I think this is how the remainder of my month here will be.
Mornings are spent in a hospital and evenings at a small clinic somewhere.
Thanks again to everyone who wrote back. I'll try to answer personal emails as best I can.
Quagmire
Another guest blog from Quagmire.
Hello again:
Given a choice between the monsoon rains and the Muslim/Hindu religious riots, I prefer the riots. The riots were relatively well-contained and the burning buses were kind of cool. Apparently some vandals desecrated the statue of the late wife of a major religious leader here and that simply will not stand. Despite the distractions, my clinical experience is finally in full-swing.
Last Friday I made the journey to Virar, the village up north where I was to spend all of last week. Though I only stayed one day, it was really cool. I sat in on a delivery. Because they have no choice, the village women are all opting for natural delivery. Also, episiotomy is pretty much mandatory for everyone, despite the fact that most of the babies are born weighing about 4 pounds. The episiotomy was also essentially natural. Some lidocaine was given to the poor woman, but the doctors didn't wait for it to start acting before cutting. Regardless, the baby was born and seemed healthy enough. They wrapped it up like a burrito and whisked it out of the delivery room to show the father. I think the mother is scheduled to see the kid sometime next week.
I spent the weekend in Goa, which is a big resort area on the west coast of India south of Mumbai. The weekend consisted of lounging on the beach sipping Kingfisher beer, visiting Portuguese military forts built in the 1600's and wishing I had a surf board. It reminded me a lot of California and made me miss my adopted homeland on the Pacific.
Today was my first day at one of the public hospitals in urban Mumbai.
I spent the morning "scrubbed" into Surgery. I expected to have to wash and wash and wrap and gown and mask-up before surgery. Nope, I just put on a little hat, a mask and in I went. Not that it mattered, I'm pretty sure I was the cleanest person in the room. Ironically I was the only person not to touch the patient. I wonder if I will ever again have the experience of working in an OR while barefoot. We did three surgeries in a row this morning, an appendectomy, a burned arm reconstruction and an excision of a pilonodial sinus. I'm not sure, but I think in the burn reconstruction surgery, the surgeon was kind of winging it. He and the Anesthesiologist were oft discussing how much tissue to remove to restore complete arm function for the patient. I think even the orderlies were asked their opinions on the matter.
Tonight I go to a private practice clinic in one of the slums of Mumbai. I think this is how the remainder of my month here will be.
Mornings are spent in a hospital and evenings at a small clinic somewhere.
Thanks again to everyone who wrote back. I'll try to answer personal emails as best I can.
Quagmire
posted by Joe at
9:05 AM
4 Comments:
Colorful commentary. I'll take our health system any day...
I read this post & didn't realize it was a guest post & was thinking who the heck is this guy? He's delivering babies now?!!! I got quite the giggle when I realized my mistake. Very interesting stuff from Quagmire.
"...wrapped it like a burrito....bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"
Nice idea with this site its better than most of the rubbish I come across.
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