Two days now completed here on the Friendship Hospital Boat. We are staying on a house boat that is docked with the hospital. Sharing the houseboat with us are our translators, a gecko, and a cockroach (may he rest in peace).
Here we are "expert" in all things medicine. Forget that we haven't seen anyone above 20 years old in 3 years, our geriatric skills are being dusted off. We are also seeing plenty of kids as well. Some of them have put our diagnostic skills to the test. Fortunately, as experts, whatever we say goes, and when we are faking it, no one is the wiser. Unfortunately, we have also found that sometimes we do know the answer but knowing the answer and solving the problem are two very different things here. Yesterday we diagnosed a 4 year old girl with kidney disease, only to realize her father was too poor to get her to a hospital. Today we saw an 18 year old who has chronic lung disease but had never been diagnosed and now has lungs that hardly work.
On a lighter note we LOVE rice. We have no idea how we ever had breakfast/lunch/dinner without it.
How's this for lost in translation... Tom was seeing a 6 yo boy who was having some constipation. Having learned very quickly that low cost solutions are best he went for a tried, true and cheap solution. He suggested using some brown sugar. A well timed phone call had pulled tom's translator from the room. With blank stares all around him tom found help from Jasim (our broken english translator). With Jasim on the case he led tom directly to the lab where they asked if this brown sugar was a blood or urine test. When tom explained it was something you eat, Jasim finally nodded in understanding. Who knew that 'brown sugar' means 'hashish' in bengali. Apparently, everyone but us.
Here we are "expert" in all things medicine. Forget that we haven't seen anyone above 20 years old in 3 years, our geriatric skills are being dusted off. We are also seeing plenty of kids as well. Some of them have put our diagnostic skills to the test. Fortunately, as experts, whatever we say goes, and when we are faking it, no one is the wiser. Unfortunately, we have also found that sometimes we do know the answer but knowing the answer and solving the problem are two very different things here. Yesterday we diagnosed a 4 year old girl with kidney disease, only to realize her father was too poor to get her to a hospital. Today we saw an 18 year old who has chronic lung disease but had never been diagnosed and now has lungs that hardly work.
On a lighter note we LOVE rice. We have no idea how we ever had breakfast/lunch/dinner without it.
How's this for lost in translation... Tom was seeing a 6 yo boy who was having some constipation. Having learned very quickly that low cost solutions are best he went for a tried, true and cheap solution. He suggested using some brown sugar. A well timed phone call had pulled tom's translator from the room. With blank stares all around him tom found help from Jasim (our broken english translator). With Jasim on the case he led tom directly to the lab where they asked if this brown sugar was a blood or urine test. When tom explained it was something you eat, Jasim finally nodded in understanding. Who knew that 'brown sugar' means 'hashish' in bengali. Apparently, everyone but us.
did you give the cockaroch a proper burial? or did you add that to your rice?
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