Students' perspective in Zaragosa

Brandon Alexander (below) worked in internal medicine today, and wants to specialize in Pediatrics. He was kept very busy today, as were all of us. Brandon said, "While it was great to help so many people, it was hard to do a thorough job knowing that 200 patients were still waiting." Limited supplies were also an issue, as we ran out of certain medications. He said that he was unable to treat a child's ear infection due to a shortage of children's Tylenol.

Whitney Faulconer was also in internal medicine today, and she wants to specialize in ER. Her most memorable patient today was a mother and her baby. The mother was trying to tell her that the baby hadn't filled the diaper in about a week, and she finally got the message and exclaimed, "Problema con caca!" Whitney called over Dr. Magie, who was able to stimulate the glands and solve the problem. The mother was tremendously relieved, and the baby's mood was vastly improved. She said, "It was very gratifying to make such a huge difference in this family's life."

Finally, let's hear from Marcus Earle. He worked triage today, and will go into Family Medicine. His favorite part of this trip is interacting with individual patients, even though he might not have the words to communicate verbally. He tells the story of one particular patient: "I was interviewing a woman, and in the middle of our conversation, she answered her cell phone. When she hung up, I was pretending to sleep, and we all got a good laugh from that." He also fondly recalls one particular girl, Kimberly, who would tug on his leg, and gave him several hugs throughout the afternoon.