A new home in Santiago

I have been volunteering in a local public hospital in Santiago through one of my classes. The class and service project kind of turned into a joke. But I am grateful that it got me into this hospital. Public hospitals here aren’t the same. Only the people with out money are patients here. The comparison to the privet hospitals is incredible. Learning about a public health system that is drastically different from a privet one has been valuable.

It was really frustrating tying to find a way to help a program that didn’t really need it. It took a while but I finally got over the fact that I wasn’t going to be doing much service here so I should at least get something out of the experience for my self. After a long series of areas and people I stumbled upon brain surgery!! It was so cool. I had scrubs and so I was allowed to just go in and watch. There was a steady flow of students coming in and out of the room the whole time. They were removing a reoccurring tumor and I was right in there. The music play list for that day included some Savage Garden from middle school and shaggy. It was a really relaxed atmosphere; the doctor was singing and dancing. They were really good about explaining what they were doing and stopping so that people could get a good look. I loved it.

Since then I have been back 5 times. I’ve seen tumor removal brain surgery, thoracic surgery where they were putting in a chest tube, and orthopedic surgery. At first I was going by myself but now there is another girl who accompanies me. We are so comfortable there now. Some of the doctors even know us. We show up changed into our scrubs and choose a door. If that one doesn’t seem very interesting we just head out and find another. It is so much fun. There are lots of other students doing the same, so the doctors are use to it. The thing is, we really stick out. Erin, the other girl, is beautiful blond and blue eyed, I am a foot taller than all of the other women there, and we are white. Out of all the students in the room we end up having conversations with the doctors. This has ended up with phone numbers at the end of the surgery, the Dominican way, and jokes about me with the midget anesthesiologist. If we had known how to do stitches we would have been the ones sewing up the guy with the chest tube. Unfortunately I only have experience once on a rat and didn’t have the guts to pretend otherwise. I have no reserves about jumping in there and asking questions, and if I still don’t explain having them try again. I feel like I have found a new home in Santiago.

I’m not doing community service but hey I got to see brain surgery, more than once!