EKG at Clinic Day 4

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Waking up and knowing that it was the final day of clinics for the trip was such an accomplishing feeling, knowing I've made it this far without crashing, yet a bittersweet feeling, knowing that this'll be the final time I'll be working with my fellow MEMObers. 

Our day started at 5:00 AM, we crashed at a hotel in My Tho and I had to rush into the showers and down the stairs in time to check out of the hotel. The journey to today's clinic was particuarly unique. We had to park the bus on the main road and take a small shuttle to where the actual clinic was located. The whole road was bumpy and muddy; it made me realize how far these people are willing to go just to see us and recieve help from us. As we crossed muddy potholes and tight closed roads, we finally arrived to see probably the most organized clinic we've had thus far on 6G.

I immediately began setting up the EKG machines for my role in the clinic and unfortunately, I remembered we were running out of electrodes for the machine and that we forgot to get more for the clinic so we had to limit how many patients that we were allowed to accept that day for EKG's. 

The day went smoothly for EKG's and I was able to show a few MEMObers how to use the EKG machine. Afterwords I helped intake and triage for a bit and finished up the rest of the clinic doing ultrasound.

Long Co and I helping out a patient

More EKG

Controlling the crowd waiting on EKG/Ultrasound screening.

At the end of the day, we ended up helping over 500 patients. Which tallies up to almost 2000 patients during our whole mission. However, the clinics is just one fragent of what MEMO is all about, tomorrow will be the day for the orphanages!

William Nguyen

Heart Surgery Day- Hospital Day 3

It is an incredulous feeling, witnessing a life being saved in front of your very own eyes. I was fortunate enough to witness an open heart surgery being performed.

The day started just like every other hospital day, breakfast and formal attire. However, I was not prepared for the atmosphere that I'll be put into later in the day. As soon as we arrived at the hospital, we were immediately put into the waiting room for the operating room for where they perform heart surgeries. We scrubbed in; hairnets, face masks, the whole she-bang. There was about 6 of us and they only allowed 4 of us into the operating room at the time.

We changed sandals at least 3 times before we were finally able to enter the operating room. The patient was already sedated and I was able to watch the whole preparation up close. The surgeon explained to us that they were removing a tumor from an artery and that the procedure would take no longer than two hours.

Alex scrubbed in

Surgeons prepping for the Heart Surgery

First look at the heart surgery

Surgeries

More surgeries

Even more surgeries

I cringed as the surgeon made the first incision; I've always dreamed of witnessing a heart surgery, however I had always fearful of how my body would react to seeing one being performed. But to my surprise, the more I watched, the more I became fasinated by how the heart actually looks as it beats, and how nonchalant the surgeons were as they opened up the patient.

What made the day most memorable to me is how well it triggered all 5 senses. At that exact moment, life felt surreal and that as complicated as the surgery might've been, the surgeons did a good job making it a stress free environment.

William Nguyen