Halfway mark...crazy.

Alright so let’s try this thing again… I wont run out of time on this one…


So on Thursday, we were able to participate in one of Mercy hospital’s community clinics. We hopped on the bus after our morning chapel with Mandy sharing her beautiful testimony. We were definitely all incredibly impressed with her boldness to tell about what is going on in her life… SPEAKING OF MANDY… IT WAS HER BIRTHDAY YESTERDAY!!! Wooo! (more on that later)

We were told the bus ride was supposed to be about an hour and a half, but in our experience of the Indian culture thus far we know to double every travel time estimate… and sure enough we were correct. It was a three hour bus ride our to the clinic, but a amazingly three hours it was. We drove through a ton of the huge city of Kolkata, then slowly into the outskirts, into the rural countryside, and into and through the villages. Some of the ladies took some picture along the way so I’m sure you’ll be able to get a look of them once we arrive home in about two plus weeks (man, time flies!) I know it kind of seems like quite a long drive, especially if you add in the 3-hour drive home, but there is definitely an importance for these clinics that has been communicated by the hospital. 700 MILLION people live in the villages of India and live poorer than even the homeless here in Kolkata. We were having a discussion with one of the CEO’s of Mercy hospital and he made mention of their 3 year plan of turning the 14 rural clinics into 40, and in 20 years having 400.

These clinics are completely free to the community and consist normally of a doctor and a medical assistant that takes the blood pressures as well as gives out any prescriptions needed if they are available. In the clinic we were at all our nursing girls were able to step in and take the blood pressures and fill out some charts… you parents would have been proud! Natalie, Catherine, and I were able to hang out with the doctor (and some of the other girls when they weren’t doing blood pressures) and see him talk with the patient about their symptoms and diagnose them. It was almost like little mini episodes of House (and none of them here Lupus, if any House fans were wondering) but most every patient we saw, and they were mostly mothers, were in with indigestion and complaining of weakness. The doctor explained that everybody he sees at these clinics in the rural settings suffer from anemia due to their diets. He went on to describe the mothers’ days in the rural setting: It is so filled with cooking for the other members of the family (breakfast, then start lunch right away, then dinner) that the mothers only have a chance to literally eat once a day between lunch and dinner. So sad. And as a result of this, they develop anemia, and the even sadder thing is that even though the doctor tells them they have to eat earlier in the day and more often, he said he will see the same patients the next time the clinic occurs because they are so set in the ways and relied upon by their families that they will continue with their unhealthy habits.

Friday was Mandy’s birthday! And the girls decorated their room for her with some pink and purple streamers! We all headed off to our last official day at Mercy Hospital wearing our scrubs for the last time (I think all of us are excited about that, the scrubs and Kolkata heat are not a good combination). We split up into small groups on the different floors to spend our last time with patients and learn from the nurses and doctors. Katie and Mandy went to the Gynae ward, Sarah and Catherine to the Peds, Andreina and our English friend Lizzie to the women’s ward, Natalie and I (Tyler) to the men’s ward. Jenni sadly wasn’t feeling so hot so she was escorted back to BMS to rest for the morning (but she is feeling better now!) And after a tour of the mens ward Natalie went to join Lizzie and Andreina in the Women’s ward while I walked around the hospital to take some picture of the facilities for our presentation on Monday to the hospital.

One specific story from the day was of a woman that Natalie, Andreina, and Lizzie met in the women’s ward. And Natalie will jump in to tell the story. I came into the women’s ward and met this 72 year old sweet lady who was a paraplegic of the lower limbs. Her upper limbs were still functional. Andreina and I began to do range of motion on her legs and massaged her legs too. She seemed very grateful. She said that she felt pampered because none of the nurses or physical therapists had been moving her that way. She expressed that she has been feeling neglected. I was so happy to have brightened her day and to have alleviated her of any pain. I was able to notify the doctor that she felt that way so hopefully a change will take place in their patient care towards her.

Ok, I’m back. Sad stuff, but I know they really are trying hard at Mercy hospital so it’s sad that these things happen.

After the morning shift, we grabbed a lunch like normal and our friends/advisors Orijeet and Phillip brought out a delicious chocolate cake for Mandy’s birthday! Those guys are great! We plowed through it and then had some fun with the left over frosting as you can tell by the picture.

Jenni joined us as we traveled to the nursing school associated with Mercy hospital where Katie and Andreina gave their presentations for the Transcultural healthcare class. Katie discussed mental health assessments while Andreina gave a talk on CPR and the Heimlich maneuver. Both were well done and the first year nursing students seemed to soak it up. After a generous tea and biscuit discussion with the principle of the nursing school we headed back home for the day.

As I promised, here are more pictures… enjoy everyone! We all love and miss you!

This is the girls' bathroom during the storm from the cyclone. Crazy wind...

This is Kolkata's busy downtown area on Park Street.
A picture from the auto ride to the PT clinic, Rehab Center for Children (RCFC).
Natalie and Sarah working on a girl with polio with the physical therapist at RCFC.

Me messing around with some Theraband with two boys with casts on for their club feet at RCFC.
Displaying all the bead and pipe cleaner beauty at the RCFC
The beautiful ladies in their Salwars (i think thats how you spell it) for church.
The kids and us as STARS.


A few of us in the OR.