Aussie/Thai Boy 101: WEEK 1: PEDIATRICS

I just finished my first week at McCormick Hospital in PEDIATRICS, under the guidance of Dr. Kamol. It turned out to be an amazing week filled with medical terminology, procedures/techniques used for examining patients, information about diseases/sicknesses, healthcare issues in Thailand, etc. Most importantly, I got A TON of first-hand experience.

I spent most of my week shadowing Dr. Kamol in the pediatric clinic and the nursery/general wards. A typical day included diagnosing patients for half the day at the clinic and then visiting them later in the wards.

Despite only being a week, I got to see a wide array of illnesses affecting children: herpes, anemia, dengue hemorrhagic fever, jaundice, URIs, fever, tonsillitis (TONS of tonsillitis), gastroenteritis, laryngitis, bronchitis, roseola infantum, bronchiolitis, epilepsy, asthma, etc, etc. And I learned a lot about each illness from Dr. Kamol. He taught me what symptoms to look for, what caused them, and how they are treated… I have tons and tons of notes from all the information he gave me.

Dr. Kamol even let me physically examine patients in the clinic. When patients would come into his office and tell him their symptoms, he would let me check their breathing (stethoscope), check their throats, and check their ears (otoscope). And sometimes while we were in the wards, Dr. Kamol would tell me to go to patients' rooms and check up on them BY MYSELF… either to examine their breathing, check their skin for poor circulation (a symptom of dengue fever), etc, etc… And that took me completely out of my comfort zone (in a good way, though). I mean I don’t even speak Thai, yet I went to patients' rooms, greeted them and their family, and then examined them.

And that is what most surprises me about this medical internship in Thailand… Thai people are not concerned with privacy like Americans. They don’t ask tons of questions or demand answers. They simply respect doctors and healthcare professionals, so they never questioned who I was or what I was doing… Nor did they mind it… they just let me examine the patients without any complaint. Some even smiled and called me, “Mr. Adam.”

By far, however, my favorite part of this week was getting to go to the nursery ward to see the newborns. On Thursday, 2 babies were born (one at midnight and one at 7 am)… So Dr. Kamol and I went to give each baby a full examination to ensure that everything was okay and normal with them. And I got to do a full examination on one of the babies, even though he was only 4 hours old!

For the examination, we…

Checked the baby’s hip movement
Listened to his heart to ensure there were no heart murmurs
Checked his TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) levels
Checked his reflexes (Tonic Neck Reflex)
Examined his genitalia (ensured the presence of the penis, the 2 testicles, and the anus)
Checked/felt the anterior & posterior fontanels (soft spots) in his head to ensure they were normal
ETC

Another interesting event during my time in the nursery ward was a baby that had been born in the mountains about 2 days ago… His mother belonged to a Thai hill-tribe, so she was unable to make it to the hospital in time to give birth. She ended up giving birth at home and cutting the umbilical cord with a bamboo sheet. Well, the baby caught Clostridium tetani (tetanus) from the bamboo, so he came to McCormick for treatment. I just thought it was interesting because I had just learned in depth about Clostridium tetani in my Microbiology class at UWA in Australia… and now I was seeing it first-hand… It was one of those times when you apply all the science stuff you learn in class to the stuff you actually want to do as a career….

This week was also just a great opportunity to build relationships with the patients. I saw many patients come in on Monday, receive treatment, and then come back 2-3 days later to check-in on how they were doing. And most of them remembered me. Plus, it was pretty cool when Dr. Kamol said that I had the personality to be a great doctor one day… YEAH!

Ultimately, I’m just ecstatic that I got this opportunity to come to Thailand and to do this internship. I’ve gained so much insight into what kind of doctor I want to be and medical knowledge that will prepare me for a career in healthcare… and it’s only the 1st week! Pediatrics is definitely something I found an interest in, and I cannot wait to see what the next three weeks will be like…

Next Week - Internal medicine

Week 3 – Surgery

Week 4 - Tropical Skin Diseases

Hopefully, I will gain as much knowledge/first-hand experience as I got this week. I’ll keep you posted though via my blog. Here are just a couple of pictures from my time in pediatrics this week… I didn’t take very many pics because I didn’t want to appear unprofessional in any manner... I also didn’t want to be disrespectful to any patients. Instead I just took pics of pictures/diagrams on the hospital walls… haha!

Inside the pediatrics clinic @ McCormick Hospital

This is just a picture from a poster on the wall just outside the clinic... It's not a "real" patient, but it's a good representation of just how cute Thai babies are... haha.