Bangkok Patana Students visit Pinklao Foot Care Clinic

Medical Internship

 

Tuesday 12^th April 2011 at Pinklao Navy Hospital

 

What I learned/gained from this experience:

           

This medical internship at Pinklao hospital was completely different from my previous internship at Bumrungrad Hospital; we were able to see the doctors performing their duties and were given the opportunity to interact with the patients. Unlike in Bumrungrad where doctors would simply talk to us, we were able to see the suffering and the extent to which diseases can affect people’s lives. I had the chance to interview คุณป้าสมจิต, a lady in her sixties who has suffered from diabetes for 24 years. She recently had a foot ulcer, which has alraedy been cured, and had a blood vessel transplant from her right thigh down her leg to her right foot. This transplant was needed as the blood vessel down her right leg was clogged, as a result of diabetes, and she has lost all sense of feeling in her legs and feet- she feels completely numb in that area. She came in to get a special shoe made for her that would reduce pressure and friction for her feet when she walked, and would thus prevent more ulcers from forming in the future. The nurses made a paper mache imprint of her feet.

I never knew that diabetes could have such severe effects on other areas of the body, such as the legs and foot, and I learned that constant friction or compression caused by simple actions such as standing still or walking can cause serious wounds for diabetic patients.

Another patient in the ward had four of his toes cut off due to a series infection, which again arose from diabetes. I had never seen such a serious wound in real life before and although the sight was gruesome, I was able to cope with it and learned to accept that this is reality – this is the weakness of the human body.

Another patient I interviewed was a man who had several calluses on the soles of his feet. He has had diabetes for 10 years and sells food for a living. Similar to the other patients, his lower body is numb and as a result of standing still for a long time at his stall, the compression and pressure built up at the soles of his feet caused calluses to form. The nurse informed me that this was a type of neuropathic infection. I was able to see the medical students in training as one of them cut out the dead skin around the calluses. The patient seemed unaffected, as he could not feel anything, but for a healthy person such as myself, I could not help but feel overwhelmed and amazed; the patient must have gone through so much pain and suffering, more so than I can ever imagine.

This internship has enabled me to see real suffering and hardship, and has taught me to find value in the little things in life as well as the importance of keeping ourselves healthy and fit.

 

 

 

Hyperbaric Chamber

 

We were also given the rare chance to see the hyperbaric chamber, one of Pinklao hospital’s finest facilities. I learnt that the hyperbaric chamber can be used to cure decompression sickness, a disease most often found in divers or pilots who experience ­an increase in air bubble concentrations in their blood vessels as a result of spending time in different altitudes. These air bubbles are highly dangerous as they can cause blood vessels and the lungs to burst. When divers or pilots return to normal altitude and standard pressure conditions either too quickly or too slowly, the dissolved gases in our blood come out of solution to form air bubbles inside the body on depressurization. The symptoms of this disease include joint pain, as most of these bubbles accumulate at the joints, and patients run the risk of paralysis or perhaps even death.

The hyperbaric chamber is a recompression, high-pressure chamber that provides pure oxygen for patients. This oxygen reduces the pressure inside the blood vessels, causing new blood vessels to form as well as widening the blood vessels. This treatment can thus be used to help those with decompression sickness and has therapeutic value for autistic children.