So I Guess That Makes Me The Doctor

It would seem that after two days of experience working in the clinic that a grand counsel decided that it would be best to let the medical students run the show today. Either that or the doctor that was supposed to be the attending decided that he would just leave a note pad of pre-signed prescriptions in his place. Either way today’s dream team consisted of an Ecuadorian senior medical student (Juan Carlos), myself (mostly proficient in Spanish and figuring things out) and another fourth year medical student from Australia (Brianna, still trying to get a hold of this whole Spanish thing). It looks like my two days of experience were to be put to the test. A moment of sink or swim.

Fortunately all anyone gets in Ecuador is a common cold and they’re happy with some Paracetamol (similar to Tylenol) and go their way right? The answer to this is “wrong”. Not even an hour had gone by and we already had a pediatric patient of about two years who was brought in emergently with a deep scalp laceration on the back of his head. Also it’s never going to be an quick easy job to suture a wound when the patient is actively fighting you. Juan Carlos spearheaded the suturing while the mother and Brianna held down the child, which in the meantime the nursing student from Boston holding a light source came close to passing out. Luckily I can shine a light and cut sutures with two separate hands. Didn’t even learn that from a book. And of course it wouldn’t be an Ecuadorian experience if we had all the right supplies, so say hello to fat needles for local lidocaine injections and suturing. I will never take for granted a small 25 gauge needle again. Fortunately after a lot of hard work and screaming everything was taken care of and the young child started to calm down which was followed by one of the more tender moments I’ve witnessed. The two year old, still slightly stained by blood from the head wound, saw his sister come over to his bed, then he held out his hand to take hers as if to say, “I’m okay”.

Today was a humbling experience. Even though I have learned so much throughout these past four years days like today show me just how much more there is to learn. Rarely do you get moments like this so early in your medical career where you’re the one running the show. I definitely feel motivated to continue developing both my clinical skills and medical Spanish. I’m happy that I’ve had enough learning experiences to prepare me for this rotation because it is unlike anything I have done yet, especially when after seeing dozens of patients you get a women who is deaf, can’t speak, and has an infected ingrown toe nail that needs to be treated. This place is just full of surprises.  Also I think today half of Ecuador coughed on me... more or less.