OVERVIEW

Thank you so much for taking time to look at our blog! We are a group of medical students who are passionate about training in underserved areas. This January and February, we are in Peru, Uganda, India, and Costa Rica internationally as well as locally in Flint and Lansing completing volunteer service, rotating in hospitals and clinics, and learning about international medicine and local underserved health care. We appreciate any time you take to read our reflections and any donations you might offer.

Please click the “Donate” link on the side for more details on how to give directly to these communities.


Tuesday, January 19

Early week 2 update

What a great weekend.  Waterfalls, hiking, swimming in rivers.....it was some good R&R before starting a very busy week 2.
Velo de Novia, one of the waterfalls we visited


But now....back to work.  Yesterday was a longer day, working at the hospital in the morning before spending the afternoon and evening at the Chanchamayo prison for a health campaign.  We identified some sicker people there then at the health campaigns last week. Some examples included: out-of-control diabetes and hypertension, bloody cough and fevers concerning for tuberculosis, an unidentified neck mass concerning for a thyroid nodule, and a woman with stage III uterine cancer who recently developed rectal bleeding.  Interestingly, the accounts given by the prisoners sometimes did not match up with those of the prison's medical staff, who tended to downplay the concerns of the prisoners.  I'll leave that open to interpretation.  

This morning more work in the hospital, this time in cardiology. Tonight, we're going to the fire-station where I'll be leading some CPR teaching.  The firefighters are, from what I have been able to gather, the only medically equipped first-responders here in La Merced.  Unfortunately, they're all volunteers and many don't know how to use their equipment or perform basic life support procedures like CPR.  

There's some interesting and controversial ethics behind teaching CPR in developing countries, as highlighted in this paper by Friesen, Patterson, and Munjal from the past year.  I have some misgivings about designing CPR lessons for lay-people in rural native communities, which I had been asked to do originally by the FIMRC-Peru administration.  Without getting into it too much here, though, I see less of an ethical dilemma in teaching CPR to designated first-responders who are going to be taking ambulances to medical emergencies with or without me.  So I'm excited for tonight.

Hasta luego,
Nick

1 comment:

  1. Sounds like you are all working hard and doing a lot for the community. Looks a lot warmer there. It is 17 degrees right now here at home in GR. A special "hello" to Joe from all of us at home!

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