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Synapse TRAVEL The UCSF Student Newspaper
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Tamil Nadu, India
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Volume 58, Number 8
Ahuas, Gracias a Dios, Honduras: Travel Nursing in a Rural Hospital
Dr. Ovelio, Hannah Patzke, and patient in la sala operatoria at Clinica Evangelica Moravia. Photo courtesy of Hannah Patzke After taking Darshanam and watching the evening aarti ceremony at the majestic Sri Ramanathaswamy Temple in Rameshwaram, I was able to capture the serenity of two religious priests strolling through one of the temple’s colorful passageways.
Photo and story by Mitul Kapadia
I
spent the summer working on developing a community-based rehabilitation program in rural Sargur, in the state of Karnataka, India. Following my month of volunteer work, I did some traveling in the state of Tamil Nadu. As we approached the train station, we saw the wrap-around lines at the ticket counter to buy our train ticket. Fortunately, we had arrived well in advance of the departure time and had bottles of water to quench our thirst in the 100-plus degree weather. Once we had our tickets, we decided to try to board early to get a good seat. Only then did we see that literally every square inch of seats and floor space was occupied. There were even people lying in all the baggage shelf space. Left with only one option, we claimed the steps onto one of the trains as our space for the next three hours. This ended up being quite a blessing in disguise — we got free “air-conditioning,” some fresh air, and got to see rural life in India in its uninhibited glory. Before we knew it, our feet were dangling over the Laccadive Sea with the most breathtaking sunset. Immediately, I grabbed my camera and captured a moment of serenity in an otherwise chaotic trip.
Mitul Kapadia, MD, MSc, is an Assistant Clinical Professor and Clinical Director of Pediatric Rehabilitation.
Puyallup, Washington
By Hannah Patzke
“I
s p a r a a i k l a k a n , d o c t o r. L a t w a n , d o c t o r. Latwan!”
Rides at the Puyallup Fair. Yes, we were there from opening to close, eating fair scones and purple cotton candy. The most interesting food: a side of rice for $5. Being Asian, I had to have rice with my BBQ, so went to another booth just to get rice. My Asian side flinched when I saw the price. Photo by Clara Abejuela, food service worker, UCSF Patient Food Services.
“The machete cut me, doctor. It hurts, doctor. It hurts!” I heard the cry ringing through the halls of our tiny rural hospital in Ahuas, Honduras, and I knew I needed to get ready to scrub into surgery. Already that week, we’d had three people come in with serious tendon damage from machete wounds. Machetes (or ispara as they are called in Miskito) are the tools of choice for many laborers here in La Moskitia. Farming, cutting grass, harvesting yucca, splitting open a coconut — everything is done with the machete. Boys of barely 4 years of age are already wielding these giant blades to cut grass. Our first case of the day was indeed 4 years old. The machete had sliced through his palm and severed his fourth and fifth fingers. His pinky finger was only barely attached to the ring finger. The ring finger had been amputated completely through the bone, but a flexor tendon was still attached, and there was some blood flow to the digit. Somewhat miraculously, the pinkie finger also had capillary refill, although we could not see how. The doctors scrubbed in, and I monitored
AHUAS » PAGE 5