Today was my first day working in the emergency department at the largest (and public!) hospital in the Caribbean. Every morning starts out with a morbidity and mortality reviewing what happened the day before. This morning, over 60 babies were delivered. The cases discussed were probably the most insane things I've ever heard about- a baby weighing 7500 g at birth, insane infections of the uterus. We just don't ever see these kinds of things in the US.
Everyone in the hospital is very friendly and welcoming. My Spanish is getting better- at least for today! I spent a lot of time with the residents today, learning how to describe patients in Spanish when presenting them to attendings. Although I have plenty of practice speaking to patients in Spanish, learning the medical lingo for describing them to other physicians was tons of new vocab. It was really tough!
The ED in the hospital is a large room with lots of "stalls" with patient beds. Women are told to enter their stall and take off their clothes; there they lay completely naked, alone, exposed on tables covered in garbage bags to keep them clean. The women that are allowed into the ED out of the small crowded waiting room of about 50 women are triaged, which means only the ones who are suffering most are seen. I've seen plenty of women who I thought were suffering in the US but I NEVER ever witness the agony of each patient who came to the hospital. These women literally come in because they are dying. I knew to expect a much different type of experience this month, but nothing can prepare you for the types of things I saw today.
Although I only worked 7am-12pm, it was the hardest day of my life. I walked out feeling sick, everything was a blur. As I pushed past the 50 or so people waiting for space to open up in the lobby to enter, a woman saw me and tried to give me her newborn baby to take with me. I walked home feeling completely exhausted and numb. At home, I couldn't do anything but lay down and try to sleep. I forced myself to wake up and eat lunch. Luckily, my hostel mother saw the exhaustion in my first day and gave me a cup of amazing Dominican coffee. I felt better soon and was motivated to read up on all the ill patients I saw today. Tomorrow will be another challenging day for sure, but I look forward to the challenges ahead of me.
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