Memorable cases

My goal was to interview students on the bus ride home from clinic sites, and include their perspectives in my blog post. However, I frittered away the entire bus ride socializing, instead of taking notes. I happened to join student leaders Shahrzad and Amy for dinner, and I asked them to write down their highlights of the day. Here are their direct words :

Shahrzad Rahbar says, “Although I participated in this trip last year, I never had a patient who needed a steroid injection in their knees. For two years, I have practiced on cadavers at KCUMB, and was nervous about performing a knee injection on a patient. With Dr. Desai’s guidance, I successfully performed two knee injections back to back without any problems. I saw that all my practice had more than paid off, and I was so happy to provide relief to the two stoic women I had helped .  And although we came from different cultures, backgrounds, and experiences, we connected through my imperfect Spanish, and their patience and understanding."

 

And from Amy Rice, “We have been fortunate to work with a local OB/GYN resident who has been teaching students and helping to translate important information to patients. It is important for Guatemalans to experience a local physician helping to train us to increase their trust in the health care here. With the resident’s knowledge, and a borrowed microscope, we were able to treat many patients with appropriate treatment/medications. Today we were able to refer several patients for follow-up to Hermando Pedro (a local hospital). Based upon microscopic examination , we were confident that a few patients had cervical cancer, which may have been overlooked or misdiagnosed otherwise.”