Now that I am finished with my internship at Maternidade Nascer Cidadao, I am filling my time having experiences in other hospital settings and even taking more time to see what university life is like here. Goiania has many universities but the two I have had contact with are UFG, the Universidade Federal de Goias, and PUC, Pontifica Universidade Catolica de Goias. UFG is the university which my host sisters attend and it is the university at which the interns in Maternidade Nascer Cidadao study as well. It is public. Today I sat in on a class at PUC, which is private. The class was for fourth year medical students and it had about thirty students. The students were broken into groups to discuss approaches to caring for a patient with symptoms the professor listed on the board. Then, after discussion, the professor called on students to speak to the class about certain aspects of the care which their group decided was best. The next class was about formatting the mandatory health care plans cities in Brazil are required to have. Most of the students did not seem to think this class was very important, but I wish I was able to understand more of the professor's lecture! From what I did understand, I think the teacher was talking about the difficulties that cities have faced in the past and possible approaches for remedying them in the future. I should also point out that the professor who is organizing my experiences now just dropped me off in the class with the students. Again, it was a case of total immersion, but at least this time the students speak English and were all very kind and curious to know everything about me.
After class (which began at 7:00 AM!), around 10:30 AM, I went with two other students to PUC's hospital, Santa Casa to observe two small surgeries. I liked this experience quite a bit and was very surprised how patient the doctor/professor was in teaching the students to perform these surgeries themselves, while also being mindful of the patient's needs as well. We also stopped by the OR and happened to have the opportunity to watch the majority of a Renalectomy (removal of one of the kidneys). Once the kidney was removed, the doctor even opened it to show us how full of kidney stones it was!
Following a lovely lunch in one of the other student's homes, we went back to the OR for the afternoon and watched a rare surgery called a fistula. A fistula is when an artery is connected to a vein. Though this is usually a birth defect, it can be created surgically in a patient's arm when necessary to more easily facilitate dialysis. This surgery, though very small, took a very long time and required three doctors, as many hands are necessary to hold all the instruments and make the tiny stitches to hold the artery and the vein together once they are freed from their normal positions in the arm. This surgery was very interesting to watch, however, I did not like it as much as the smaller surgeries, and in comparison to obstetrics, it is much less exciting.
