My Trip to India: Community Health Rotation

My first week’s rotation was in the community with the health care workers and a doctor. We visited day schools for children under 5, where their monthly heights, weights, and basic medical exams are taken. We saw anemia in almost every child, ring worm, a potential TB diagnosis, severe respiratory illnesses, and many complaints of diarrhea/fever. It was very interesting to see how the health of the children was correlated to their living conditions. Daycares closer to the towns and main roads tended to be unclean, crowded, and less healthy. In the mountains, the more remote villages had cleaner and smaller daycares with significantly healthier children. Most of them still had anemia, but they were not as sick the others.
Some children’s conditions stuck with me:

1. Lucy (one of the med students from New Zealand) flagged a few of us over to listen to this boy’s lungs who was about 3 or 4 years old. We could hear his lungs without the stethoscope, they crackled every time he took a breath. We found out that he has been sounding like that for over a year and they hadn’t done anything about it. He was immediately referred to the hospital for a same day visit. When we left, we discussed how most of the children who are referred never show to the clinic. Most people can’t afford the hospital fees or the time away from the fields to trek the kids to the hospital.

2. Another girl, around the age of 2 or 3, was severely anemic and had been seen eating mud for the past 2-3 weeks. The doctor diagnosed pica, a condition where the individual eats dirt/mud when lacking iron due to anemia. Anemia is extremely high in India because the majority of the population is Hindi and does not eat meat, therefore they lack iron in their diet.

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Baby waiting for his check up in the village.

In the community, we were not able to be as helpful as we had hoped. The doctors encouraged us to practice taking vital signs, but with few translators and little room we were unable to contribute as much as we had wished. So, we let the Doc and the health workers do their thing. This was extremely frustrating at times because I want to help anyway possible. But there are times when you have to just let it be. It’s a difficult concept to grasp. With little direction and miscommunication we were unsure of our place in the community. We see these sick children, and we know there is not much we can do as undergraduate students to help. So we sit with them, play with them, and make them smile.

I found a cuddler :)

Saying goodbye

I have learned a lot about the health care system in India through observation. The most noteworthy problem that I have notices was the lack of education and service available for the large Indian population. *a very matter of fact story of how many of the villagers don’t understand the human body* Dr. Kathleen shared with us a complaint from this very concerned man that his wife had white fluid coming from her genitals:

When did it start?...When we married. //Are you sexually active?...Yes//When do you see it?....after sex.

He didn’t know what ejaculation was… basic physiology. Now imagine the other types of infectious disease, non-communicable disease, and ailments that occur in an underdeveloped country. This place is a medical mess due to: lack of education of simple health and cleanliness (hygiene, nutrition), environment, and resources.

I am grateful for my health and education that I have received growing up as a kid. As an American growing up as the doctor’s daughter, I have taken health and medicine for granted. These couple weeks in India have completely shifted my view. In many of the villages I saw this week, it was a miracle to be a healthy, well nourished child. Gives me a lot of perspective.

I am excited to begin my hospital rotation in the morning. We have heard some very impressive stories so far, I’ll be sure to keep note of mine so that I can put them in my blog! We also had our new supervisor arrive, Lis, who we are all very excited about! She loves to trek and brings a great dynamic to the group.

The orphanage was amazing. Clean, educated, happy children.

Some of the kids from the orphanage.

PS: I love the students in my group! We all get along very well. Some fun things we have done so far…

-a 6hour trek uphill through the meadows. Very beautiful views…sore legs.

-a trip to Naggar, a neighboring village, where we had some sweets, sandwiches, and milkshakes!

-many many walks to Old Manali. Dylan’s is my favorite café so far. It has paintings of Bob Dylan lyrics all over the walls, hippies lounging, and the aroma of sweets fills the air. The best warm chocolate chip cookies and real black coffee!