Nicole's First Week (Monday) in the Hospital

This is the first day it has "rained" since we arrived in Thailand and it barely even drizzled. The good thing is it's definitely cooler!

Today, Brooke and I were in the surgical ICU. I saw a patient who got hit by a bus. He fractured his ribs and two of his vertebrae. Luckily, he can still move and feel his legs. He is still on a ventilator right now and will need a brace for his chest even after he gets better. 

The lady next to him had her leg amputated below the knee due to complications from diabetes. We got to observe the cleaning and dressing of the wound. 

Another patient had fallen down and had broken her ribs. She also had bowel obstruction.

The fourth patient had an ovarian cyst that burst and had pus in her abdomen.

The next patient had suffered from gun shot wounds to the C3 and C4 vertebrae (close to the neck) and was paralyzed. 

The last two patients both had hypertension and craniotomies. We took one of them to the operating room for a tracheotomy.

Many of the patients also suffered from septic shock. 

This hospital has passageways between the departments and wards that are outside, but covered. Moving patients is very complicated because only certain elevators can accommodate the beds and there are steep ramps everywhere. 

We took a tour of the entire hospital today. There are 520 beds total. Each ward has approximately 32 beds in rows of 4, with 8 beds per bay. There is no air conditioning and all the patients are in the same huge room. We saw male and female critical care, surgical, orthopedics, and ENT wards. We also got to see the pediatric ward and neonatal ICU. 

I loved seeing all the babies in the NICU. There was a set of triplets who were all under 4 pounds in incubators. I really hope to work there soon. All the nurses were holding the babies and bottle feeding them.

We also got to meet the director of the hospital and the director of all the nurses. The head nurse's son is in college at Johns Hopkins University studying engineering. 

Everyone I meet is so confused when I say I'm from America. Most think I look Thai, but one nurse guessed that my family is from Hong Kong. 

During a break, we visited the coffee shop in the hospital. They had the cutest mini macaroons. 

We also learned that for medical school in Thailand, students take an exam right after high school and then begin a six year med program. They then become medical interns for 3 years. Nursing school is four years here. 

Dinner and pre-dinner:

P'Dui, the host mom we live with, picked baby limes and showed us "finger" bananas.