Dengue is spread by mosquitoes and doesn't have any treatment since it is a virus. The nurses and doctors can only treat the symptoms and many of the patients we saw had gone into shock. Another symptom of the fever is small dark spots on the inner elbow. A seven year old girl with the fever was bottle feeding her little brother as she was being treated in the hospital bed.
One two year old girl had broken both her legs in a motorcycle collision with a pickup truck. Her three brothers were also on the motorcycle and didn't make it.
I thought I would really like being in the pediatric ward, but it was very very sad. The families are allowed to visit at all times and there would often be a parent or grandparent curled up in the small bed with the kid. The ward didn't have AC or separate rooms and we saw only a single doctor the entire time we were there.
We met a nurse who doesn't really like her job. She said she didn't want to be a nurse but her parents wanted her to be since it's a good job with a consistent salary. All the nursing students are 21 and want to go to America.
For lunch, we went to the doctor interns conference that they have every Wednesday. Two students presented a case study to faculty and other interns. It was similar to presentations done in the U.S.
In the afternoon, Brooke and I were in the labor room. When we arrived, twin girls had just been born and two babies arrived from the operating room after their mothers had C-sections. One baby needed oxygen and had a box with an oxygen tube over her head.
All the babies recieved vitamin K shots to prevent bleeding as well as ointment to protect their eyes.
The labor area didn't have separate rooms. All the mothers in active labor as well as the newborns were kept together. At one point, there were three babies in an incubator that is used for only one when I've shadowed in America. There was a single team of nurses in charge of monitoring both the mothers and babies.
We also got to see a live birth! The moms don't receive epidurals and labor very quietly. During the actual birth, there were no doctors present, only a doctor intern and a number of nurses.
All the babies we saw today have full heads of hair and were super cute.
We had dinner with P'Gok and P'Noi who work in the pharmacy and the laboratory. P'Noi had an Afghani doctor staying with her named Rameen. He is 24 and the youngest doctor graduating in his class. Everyone in Afghanistan wants to be a doctor and they study for three years for an incredibly competitive exam at the end of high school that everyone has to take.
During dinner, we talked about the different health care systems. It was difficult explaining a deductible and how the Affordable Care Act is supposed to work. In Thailand, all the public hospitals are government funded and don't require any payment from the patients.
We asked about how P'Gok, P'Noi, and Rameen feel about Americans. After the military coup started in Thailand, the U.S. pulled out its ambassadors. P'Gok and P'Noi said Americans are still welcome here as long we don't talk about politics or religion. Rameen told us about how the situation and conditions in Afghanistan are so different than how it is portrayed on the media. He wants to be an orthopedic surgeon because that's what his country needs right now due to all the conflict and bombing. He wanted us to see his country, but knows we wouldn't be able to visit anytime soon.
It was really interesting getting to talk to Rameen and hear his perspective on schooling, the hospital, and Afghanistan's relationship with the U.S.
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