Week 4 - Amanda

This week was short thanks to the holiday. However, I still managed to stay quite busy with my research project and shadowing Dr. Prince. One of the most exciting parts of the week was shadowing physicians in the obstetrics (OB) ward. All of the residents in the ward were quite busy jumping from task to task and it took me several hours of observation to figure out how things worked. One resident was responsible for several different tasks, ranging from examinations of pregnant women who were concerned about their water breaking, to performing Caesarean sections (C-sections). Another was primarily responsible for triage, which is the examination of incoming patients to determine the cause of their symptoms and assign them to the appropriate ward and doctor. Despite the fact that there were no urgent cases and it seemed like a "typical day" in the ward, the doctors were still tense and appeared very hurried throughout the time I was there. I finally go the attention of one of the residents and began following her on patient rounds. As I expected would happen, one of the patients wasn't comfortable with a student being there during her examination (I wouldn't be either), so I began following the triage resident. I watched him question a woman who came in short of breath and who was worried that something was wrong with her pregnancy. The resident showed me how to run an EKG machine and adjust the leads to maximize signal.

Right after, the Physician's Assistant (PA) in that ward told me about a C-section that was just beginning, so I quickly hopped into some scrubs and found the OR. I came in just after they made the initial incision and were locating the uterus. I was surprised by the number of people in the room. There were several nurses there to collect the placenta and cells from the umbilical cord, supposedly for testing and potential research. There were various doctors prepared to care for the baby, multiple nurses talking to the mother and watching her vital signs, and of course the doctors actually doing the surgery. Amazingly quickly, they positioned the uterus, made an incision, located the baby, and then pulled him out. The "baby-care" doctors were in place to hold the baby while they severed the umbilical cord and then took him over to a small table in the corner with a heat lamp (affectionately called the "toaster") to clean him up. At this point, the surgeons began repositioning the uterus, cauterizing the bleeding, and suturing the incisions. I was much happier watching the other doctors clean up the newborn baby, confirm his vitals, and swaddle him to warm him up. I kept on glancing over at him, and was delighted to see him begin to slowly open his eyes until the yellow light above him became too bright and he quickly squeezed them shut. At one point they unwrapped him to place identification tags on his ankles and weigh him. When they placed him on the blanketed weigh scale, I was surprised to see him reach out, grab the edge, and pull himself towards it. I didn't realize that a newborn baby was that strong and reactive to his environment. The whole experience was incredible, and definitely ranks as one of the most poignant things I've seen this summer.