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well i am feeling much chirpier today!!! was back in work this morning and had quite a slow morning as there werent many patients. but in the course of the morning i managed to learn about pulmonary oedema and fluid in the lungs and learnt how to use a nebulizer so that was cool. quite a bit of time was spent sitting around chatting to the nurses about boyfriends and husbands! seems quite a topic here!
lunch was the usual stuff but then the staff from projects abroad turned up and wanted to interview us on camera all about our life with the manamperi family which was so embarassing cos i was dead sweaty with s*** hair and still have a big red line down my face!!!! so great, soon that will be on the internet for all future volunteers to see! oh well at least it will be useful to them!
oh yeh a funny story to tell that i forgot. when i got into ETU on the first day, there are 5 beds and on the end bed there was a body bag. with a body in it. i was quite shocked when i saw this, and thought ok, well someone must have just died and they are going to take them away, i guess it's common in the emergency room when they are dealing with heart attacks and cardiac arrests. So i tried to ignore it. THen off we went to the xray department with the patients, and we were gone for probs aabout half an hourish and came back, it was still there. so i for the next hour or so i was just trying to ignore it but i was starting to get really freaked out about the fact that this dead body had been on the ward for over 2 hours... so i just said to jill, how come they havent moved the body yet?........turns out its a CPR dummy! ha! what a fool!
speaking of the dummy, (we named him jim) we got very well aquainted this afternoon while Jill taught me how to do CPR, how intubate and manage the airways. . so some more new skills! apart from intubating is really really hard, and i managed to put the tube down the oesophagus about 10 times before i managed to get the wind pipe. there were about 5 student nurses on the ward as well, and they found it very amusing watching me pound his chest shouting 'Jim, dont die on me Jim!!!' and then failing to save the dummys life by pumping air into his stomach... oh well, 3 years of uni should sort that error out eh? fingers crossed!
the afternoon was starting to slow down about half 3 and we were sat around chatting when the ETU doors fly open in proper ER style. this patient is wheeled in and its the big one... the thing i've been dreading seeing but know i need exposure to.. a double fracture, foot hanging off, completely mangled trauma. think Eduardo but 50 times worse. even jill couldnt look at first and shes a 5th year med student, thats how bad it was. this guy had got his foot run over by a bus, and i dont know how it was so bad, i think it must have stopped on his foot and he pulled his leg away. it was gross..... and this was with the shoe on. and when they took the shoe off, it was whole different mess.. the foot had been completely ripped apart and barely resembled any sort of foot. the poor guy was in so much pain they had to pump him full of morphine and he was still moaning. it wasreally interesting to see thought and im glad i got to see it because it was the one thing i was really dreading, yet i didnt freak out. jill had her camera on her so took some photos, as you are allowed to do this as a med student. so yeh we have photos! was tempted to put them up but i thought that would be cruel on you all looking at nice pictures of the beach and then there is a pic of a mangled foot that looks like something out of a horror film!
so after that we left the hospital, being very aware of oncoming buses and their wheels! Jill said it is the worst thing she has ever seen. we then went to galle to the fort where jill did her last bits of shopping as she is going tomorrow (boohoo!) and then we went for tea, smoothies and brownies in the posh hotel. it was lurvely. Now i have to go as i am late for dinner!!!!
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