Cases

Here are some recent interesting cases at the hospital:

-I scrubbed in on a very interesting surgery on a young girl's wrist. She I think had carpel tunnel and some other nerve problems in her wrist. It was very interesting to watch this surgery and see all the tiny nerves and delicate bones of the wrist. Amazing!

-Watched one of the ER docs remove and infected toe nail of a young guy. I have a pretty solid stomach usually, but this made my stomach churn a bit I will admit. He had an infected big toe from an ingrown toenail. It was sliced off with a tiny scalpel head.

-I got to feel a breast cancer, which I have never felt or even seen before. It was actually closer to being in the woman's armpit. She is havin chemotherpy treatment every monday. It was huge and very very hard. It seemed to be about the size of a golf ball.

-Today a young boy aged 7 was rushed in after being hit by a motorbike. I am surprised we don't see more traffic accidents coming in judging by the way people drive around here. Anyway, he was mostly bleeding from his face and head, but once cleaned up wasn't so bad. We were awaiting x-rays when I left to see if he had any fractures or broken bones. There were quite a few police hanging around the ER after the boy was brought in.

-Watched a minor surgery to remove a boil from an older woman's abdomen. It was right next to her belly button, and the surgeon said was from a staff infection. He first just sliced it open to drain the puss then cut off alof of the surrounding infected skin. The woman was awake and moaning during the whole surgery which surprised me. Another thing that surprised me: after the surgery she had a gaping hole in her lower abdomen where the boil had been removed but she was not sutured up! The surgeon said they were leaving it open because it was an infection and needed to be cleaned for a week. We asked if she would be hospitalized for the week and he said no. She would be going home, but coming to the hospital everyday for new dressings. I was a bit surprised that they would be leaving a huge hole which exposed organs and innards and she would be going home with that hole. She was too poor to affored hospitaliztion for the week, which probably would have amounted to $10 USD or less.

-Watched surgeons biopsy a man's penis. He was very old and had some sort of penis cancer. He also had a massive testicular tumor. Lets just say I felt very sorry for this man, and it looked VERY painful. After the biopsy he will be having a genital "amputation" as the surgeon put it. Mostly everything will be removed and his urethra will be rerouted and the doctor said he will then have to "pee like a woman."

-There have been the usual cases coming in of tuberculosis. I have been reading up on TB lately because it is very common here. We usually see a few TB patients daily. I was surprised to learn that it takes 6-8 (or sometimes more) months to treat!!

-A few street kids have come in with fevers and headache and "throat pain." The only way they ever come to the hospital is if an adult brings them in. And the two times a street kid has been brought in it has been by an American, looking like a tourist. I am not sure if they see these kids and take pity on them so bring them to the hospital and pay their registration fee. The sick boys are always accompanied by a gang of about 5 other street boys, all are very dirty and never have shoes and are incredibly fascinted by the ER equipment. A few times they have got into fighting matches with one another. The "throat pain" I believe is caused by glue huffing.

-A fistula surgery and a gall bladder surgery two days ago.

-The "burn man" (the one who spilled a pot of boiling dal on himself) has come in every day since his initial accident for clean dressings.

-Quite a few cases of typhoid. The hospital director has taught me a good method for diagnosing typhoid.

-An oral ulcer. I got to look at this one with Dr. Gupta (the hosptial director). I diagnosed it as some sort of herpes of the mouth. It looked like a massive canker sore inside the gums of a teen boy. Dr. Gupta said it was an ulcer and would be treated with a topical anesthetic.

-I learned to take blood pressure. I was very excited about this one, although it is very simple, I had not learned how to take BP until a few days ago!!