Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
End of Week 1- Thursday/Friday
Ahh, Thursday. What a special day… Aside from my vomiting twice and almost fainting in surgery it was a GrEaT day (anyone sense sarcasm?). Wednesday night we were told that we were going to a hospital that's about an hour away and spending the night there. Now remember, this is a day after the night we had no sleep, so we're exhausted and horrified at the thought that we might have to go through what we went through- again!
So Thursday morning we re-pack our shiz, load the car, pick up our "tiffins" (btw these are a whole other story), and go on our way to Shirwal Hospital. We arrive in an almost celebratory fashion: driven right up to the front door, all the officials are introduced to us, and we make a huge ruckus in the main OTD room. We are led upstairs to our room. Once we're there we find out that it's not a "westernized" room as had been promised to CFHI directors, but rather a storage room with an old weight lifting set in it. The door beside it had medical records and old chemicals, the bathroom was filthy, and dust covered our white sheets. There were no pillows and no blankets, thank God Mrs. Dabak told us to bring our own sheets! Anyway, I guess the main issue was that (1) I was sick to the extreme, and (2) the rooming conditions were not what were promised to CFHI by the hospital. Rachel wasn't so angry at the fact, I was too out of it to really voice my opinion, and Deeba felt that the room was bad for her allergies (which, I could understand, that mo fo was filthy!). The toilet was an experience. The hospital had promised that a westernized toilet be put in for the interns (they also promised the interns would be staying with residents…). We come to find out it's a shower-chair like toilet seat thing which sat over the Indian toilet. This meant that when you took a pee, you prayed it would go into the ceramic trough. Needless to say, that really didn't happen… Oh yeah, no TP either.
We ended up leaving that night and returning to the guest house after we watched a hysterectomy and the girls watched a tonsillectomy. The hysterectomy was interesting. The woman had a gigantic cyst on one of her ovaries, which I guess justified a pan hysterectomy. Every nurse and doctor that wasn't the head male surgeon said that the woman was only 30, but he said that she was 40 or more. Frankly, I don't believe it. Here I think, especially when it comes to women's issues, will try and blur the edges when it comes to reasons for sterilization. I just don't understand why they couldn't just remove the one ovary? I mean, obviously it was huge! But completely sterilize her at 30?
I got a little nauseated at the beginning because they didn't put her out before they started cutting. She was wincing and moaning when they were p****ng at her. It was too much to handle. Thankfully they put her out and I could handle the situation a little more. I just think I had a problem with causing pain to a person. For some reason it doesn't seem like you cause them pain when they're out.
Funny thing, during the surgery- the power went out- TWICE. Surgery stopped, manual ventilation occurred and life went on. But honestly, it was a little freaky! Power came back on shortly, but I'll never forget the way my heart sank when I realized that this woman was in the middle of getting her uterus removed and now the surgeon can't see her.
The hospital wasn't a very maternal-child oriented hospital, so I'm pretty sure it's being cut from the program. Anyhoo, it was Friday (now its Saturday morning) and I want to go to bed. I'll have to write about Friday and soon Saturday.
- comments