Night Emergency Duty

so yesterday night was my night ER (emergency room) with samiyah saeed ahmed.

she is one of the hard workers, so i was pretty relaxed about it.

it wasn't very rush-rush in the beginning, around 8pm there were like 3-4 cases at max.

there was an old hemiplegic guy with bedsores! samiyah taught me how to do dressing on that, she's been through surgery posting and i havent yet.

some middle aged lady came with chest pain and breathlessness. had to rule out heart attack and pneumothorax. apparently she was just exhausted coz her relative was delivering a baby in the OBG ward and she was running around a lot for a few days without rest.

her condition was pretty stable and her ECG was normal. yet i just sent cardiac enzymes to rule it out further. according to the consultant, i shouldnt have as it costs NPR 500. not cheap!

some guy from Bhopal, India was touring muktinath in nepal, when he felt dizzy and fell unconscious, was brought later at night. his fellows thinking it was a heart attack, gave him sorbitrate . which was a smart move as a layman, in my opinion! but here, he apparently wasnt having a heart attack and it just lowered his BP and heart rate further! making him even dizzier and faint! :P

he was later shifted to the ICU. i was awake till 4 am and i couldnt take it anymore, so i left to sleep. the doctor's room in the ER is a shit hole! smells constantly of smoke! i dunno how they sleep there!

anyway i left my number and came to my room. next thing i know, i woke up at 12pm next morning :P

i just hope samiyah, who went to sleep earlier handled the morning well.

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Invigilation

4 Days of community medicine exam!

i was on duty in the department on all 4 days.

the 1st 2 days i had ken and vishesh, and the last 2 days i had geetanjali and amitanshu.

we were briefed by rashmi ma'am, who was in-charge of conducting the exams.

basically, from scouting for patients for the examinees to take history from, to organising and managing the rotation of all the students to all the examiners.

basically it was a challenging job demanding decent management skills as well, and i would like to believe we aced it!

we were literally on our toes, running around, helping students, helping patients, helping examiners, from 8am to 3pm! everyday!

i have to say, the help i got on the last two days was much much more than what i got on the 1st two. vishesh was always late and ken was always on the phone!

i was surprised how helpful amitanshu proved to be, and geetanjali turned out an asset for the students!

it was a nice experience overall, feels so great when the students you helped come back to you and thank you from their hearts!

just like i felt for my seniors who were there to help me during my exam days!

thanks to them, i am able to carry forward the karma!

geetanjali and me on the last afternoon of exams, feeling a sense of accomplishment!

rituparno striking a pose, just before his spotters, while sharmila cant help but 'peep' from the background! :P

sharmila couldn't stop singing nitesh singh's praises! apparently nitesh did a great job when he was on duty during their pre-lims.

examinees doing the spotters!

nandu the peon and the cleaning lady chat after the exams are done!

sharmila was never happy with the help she got! she wants more! :P

short stint in the ER

yesterday i learned to suture a scalp laceration!!
yehhhhhhh. did alright.

poor lady fell and hit her head against something and on her forehead she got a nasty 7-9cm long cut and the skull below could be seen! it was that deep!

she got 7 stitches!
prolene 000 suture material.

done with GONESA

done with gonesa after 2 weeks there.

GONESA is basically an italian-funded NGO working for young children in nepal among other things.

this is their little classroom for little kids .

how well behaved, right ?

the clinic at gonesa, with 2 dedicated sisters treating the sick.

this is where i got to do my job. i.e. sit and get bored.

:P

not really, i did see a few ill kids and gave them some medicine.

you see the old one on the right?

MAN, does she talk! :P

Gonesa?

really? seriously? Gonesa (GOod NEighbour Service Association) is a waste of time!?

its been 5 days of posting, there is no protocol for what one has to do there. those people hardly talk to anyone who visits. no instructions about the job, or where to sit or what to do.
its like a complete waste of time. from the people who have already been there, information came that we have to treat sick kids there. but i didnt see any sick kids neither did i see them treat anyone.
weird posting. useless.

galem camp

tough, young men were chosen for the trip to the small village of galem in syangja, nepal.

tough and young because the journey was arduous, and men because the journey was arduous (this sexist bias was the department of community medicine's doing, not mine).

challenge #1 : getting up early in the morning, before the usual time, to leave the college by 7.30am.

challenge #2 : having a quick breakfast before leaving and packing something for the trip, which could last the whole day!

challenge #3 : surviving the winding roads up and down the hills. sitting all cramped up in the tiny back seats of mahindra for 2 hours with a bad bout of nausea.

challenge #4 : trekking up the path, extremely narrow at some parts for an hour plus.

prashanna standing for the picture at a turn on our trekking path to galem village, where a medical camp was organised.


a particularly picturesque spot on the way. a lot of pics were taken here.
we reached the village school all sweaty and sticky. but the pleasant welcome was quite unexpected.

dr. milan is in the picture, an MO from the ER.
all the children were lined up patiently waiting for our arrival. we had a team of 6 doctors from manipal (including 3 interns, and 3 doctors) and a group of people working for GONESA (which is an NGO) who arranged and sponsored the trip.

the garland welcome :)
maoist? :P
how cute is that ?! :) its been so long since i saw kids lining up like in kindergarten!!

an amazingly beautiful setting for the school but very inaccessible !

the path looked like this, a brilliant red colour.

overall, it seemed more of a formality than actually helping out the people. because half the guys who went were not interested, and were reluctant in the first place. i was disappointed because i couldnt take much part myself in the examining and clerking the patients as i was unable to express myself in the nepali language well enough to get through to the patients. so i simply joined team with another guy and watched him do the work, meanwhile trying to check a few kids myself.

the lunch we had was pretty good though. was worried that i ate too much and might have to go poop sometime on the way . lucky enough it didnt happen.

the main time spent was the journey! 3-4 hours one way! we reached home by 7.30pm! 12 hours out! and there was no telephone network!!

but it was lovely to see the villagers all happy and pleased to see us visit! we got nice tokens of appreciation (a hand woven bag) in the end.

the only thing i missed was my earphones, which due to the hurry i forgot to pack. if only i had those the journey would have been really enjoyable.

in the ER

started the community medicine ER shift. so basically i along with rashika, prashanna and anindita go to the ER in the morning and stay till the afternoon.
today i learned how to use that ECG machine they have at our hospital. sadly, these people dont keep any training sessions for new doctors, and neither can you find any instruction manuals anywhere. so its a chore to actually get yourself to learn anything new. but i did it and went around taking the ecgs of 3 patients in the ER today. :) so happy overall for learning something new today.