Blood

The past few days, Megan, Joyce and I have been on rotation in the Gynae Ward. On Monday, we spent the morning looking at cervix infections, yeast infections and pregnant mothers until the gynocologist invited us to follow her to the post-natal ward. Two mothers had given birth earlier that morning, and she was going to check on them.

She walked up to the first woman, directed her to spread her legs, snapped on a glove, and started poking around inside the woman. After a few seconds, she started scooping out large chunks of membrane and placenta, which spilled out onto the bed and ground. The four other patients and their families crowded around and watched, as she finished pulling out the remaning membrane, and then moved on to the next patient.

After finishing in the ward, we went back down to meet with other patients. A girl, about 15 yrs. old, came in with her friends and boyfriend, and discovered that she was pregnant. Without even considering it, she immediately signed the sheets and paid for the abortion. So, Megan, Joyce and I watched another abortion, and then went to lunch.

After lunch, we went into the ER, and immediately ran into a woman with a heart rate of 243 and climbing. The other interns were in there, watching on as four doctors and tons of nurses ran about, injecting her with Adenine and Verapamil, and trying to check her blood pressure (almost non-existent.) The woman's heart rate peaked at 300, but after a few minutes on the drugs, her heart rate dropped to almost completely normal.