CMC

CMC is definitely an incredible facility. There are multiple buildings that remind you of any medical center. People are still waiting to be admitted, there are waiting rooms for family members, and people needing healthcare. As similar as it is to the US, it is still so different. I began on Peds this week. After going to the wrong place multiple times, I finally found my destination.. the PICU. There are multiple areas similar to the bays of our PICU but there are about 6 cribs to a bay. There is no central monitoring or beeping machines. When it is time to get vitals, the parents carry their children into the procedure room one at a time. Instead of beds, there are old cribs that are rusting and peeling and mostly broken. The floors are cleaned with a substance that smells incredibly similar to formaldehyde thus I am constantly reminded of anatomy lab. Even with all this, there is still the universal feeling of hope. The mothers smile as I approach the cribs to interact with them. They are so happy to try to converse and pose for a picture. As a listen to the residents and nurses speaking to the patients mostly in Tamil, I try to understand myself but of course do not, yet I still love listening to the language and trying to guess what is being said. There is still the nervous shuffle of the interns and residents rounding and praying not to be pimped. As a walk through the ward, I am able to read the different names along with their diagnoses. There is such a wide variety, 9 yr old with viral cardiomyopathy to a 3month old with brain abscess to a 2yr old with complex congenital heart disease. The 2 year old with the complex congenital heart disease struck me the most. Although she was not on our specific service, I attempted to talk to the family. She was sitting in her mother's lap with an oxygen mask covering most of her face. Her frail body demonstrated the definition of cachectic. Her extremities had absolutely no fat nor muscle. Her joints were protuding and twice the size of her long bones. Her grandmother showed me her surgery scare on her chest from heart surgery at 1 yr of age. I took a picture of this family, but for some reason the computer will not read my camera, so I will try at another location.