My First Rotation

Today was my first rotation at one of the largest hospitals here in Durban. The experience and opportunity that I have here is absolutely amazing! This week I am in the surgery section. We did rounds and I saw things you would never even image in the States. There was a patient that was diabetic and had an infection and became septic, so they amputated her toe. After surgery they unwrapped it, and it was the most greusome yet fasinating thing I have seen. All along the foot and right to the bone was exposed. Another patient suffering from a similar problem had her leg amputated up to about mid shin. I could see the ends of the Tibia and Fibula sticking out...bone marrow too! Nothing like that would ever be seen in the States! The day continued like that and I got to see some endoscopy procedures. The entire hospital has only 1 endoscopy availible. Also, they only do certain procedures on certain days. So if a patient comes in on a weekend, they have to wait til the following monday for an endoscopy. There is no deviating from the schedule, even for emergency purposes. Mostly they treat patients with saline solutions and offer very little medical treatments. Also, it's very difficult to tell what the doctors are saying. Not only are their accents hard to understand, but they speak in whispers. Overall today was an amazing experience and I can't wait for tomorrow!