As we round, I'm deeply humbled by how the patients and their families stay overnight for days in the wards in these extreme conditions of 95 degrees Fahrenheit and 95% humidity. There is no A/C, no fans, no privacy, limited personal space and certainly no entertainment. I seriously wonder how they manage to pass the time day in and day out. My mindset quickly changes as I tell myself, "If they can survive this, so can I." It's experiences like these that remind me of the tenacity and power of the human spirit and exactly why I wanted to go into medicine. The human body is amazing and capable of so many more things than we know of. I can only hope to elucidate a few of these things in my future career as a doctor.
Being here feels a lot like summer camp, where many of my favorite memories from childhood live. We wake up and get breakfast at 7:30 in order to make morning prayer by 7:45. Bethany is a Christian hospital and prayer is a part of their daily schedule. Morning prayer is a new yet familiar routine for many of us, but a far stretch from our normal lives as students. We briefly take a break for some masala chai and then attend rounds at 8:30. When you first step into the wards, there is a distinct, overpowering icy-hot, menthol-like smell. Unlike a lot of other noxious stimuli, however, this smell never lets up and is oddly comforting. It then becomes immediately apparent that all eyes are on you. As you walk through the wards, each patient looks longingly as if the fate of his life or death lies in your hands. We are definitely not used to this kind of attention back home as lowly first-year medical students, and we feel a bit overwhelmed by the true lack of real clinical knowledge we have to help treat all of these patients. But much like the leap of faith I had to make during each of my summer ropes course classes, we dive in and finish rounds without a hitch, learning at least 10 new things that morning. For instance, we witnessed a positive Hoffman's sign in a man with thalamic pain syndrome after having a thalamic stroke. A Hoffman's sign is often described as the Babinski sign of the upper extremity, but is more so an indicator of hyperreflexia and corticospinal tract disease. Another woman who ended up staying at the hospital the entire time we were there was thought to have Munchausen syndrome as she would seemingly make up symptoms to fit what the doctors thought might be going on or claim she had various new symptoms every day likely to receive more medication and care at the hospital. There is such an interesting dynamic between the patients and Bethany, especially with Dr. Muralidar. Patients come in from sometimes 40-50 kilometers away just to see him, demonstrating the tremendous respect he has gained in this community.
After rounds end, Jen and I report to Dr. Clemet's outpatient office, where he sees at least 20-30 patients a day. Complaints ranged from injuries due to a door shutter falling on a patient to third degree burns on a patient's face and arms due to a road traffic accident. Later, Jen, Derick, Gina and myself briefly observe an ultrasound radiologist that comes to Bethany every other week to scan typically pregnant women or any other case that may require ultrasound.
We then eat lunch and take an afternoon break from the sun. Eventually Derick, Christine, and I take a walk up to a former volleyball court and search for some peacocks. We also try our hands at makeshift baseball and cricket before getting eaten alive by mosquitos and calling it a day. After an hour of rest and sudoku, we go to evening prayer again and eat dinner. We then attend evening rounds and are finally ready for a much needed night of rest. The days are long, but we seem to get an incredible amount of work done. I can't wait to continue this adventure tomorrow.
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