Members of our department are well into week 2 of the elective after having spent last weekend immersed in rural Punjab where they learned about the health concerns of India’s poorest village communities. They are first-hand witnesses to the amazing humanitarian work being done to improve access to healthcare, education, and economic independence – all the while keeping their hands and minds active in the operating rooms of S.G.R.D.I and Amandeep Hospital…
Saturday March 15-Sunday, March 16
This morning Jon and Pam were finally introduced to the famous Inderjit Singh Jaijee, fondly referred to as Jaijee Uncle, whom Eric attempted to adopt on the last trip. After a lovely breakfast at his house in Chandigarh we left for the rural Sangrur district, approximately 200km south. Jaijee Uncle has dedicated his life to the issue of farmer suicide, which is a crisis in Punjab due to profound economic hardship. He has founded a college, which many students attend, without charge. Additionally his charity supports families after a loved one has committed suicide, with the only condition being that the children attend school.
This was easily the most powerful part of the trip thus far. The pictures can only begin to capture not only the destitution, but also the humanity and hospitality present in these villages.
After a long day, we enjoyed a restful night in Jaijee Uncle's guest house. In the morning, after wandering through Jaijee's vast property and endless fields, we had tea and breakfast. After breakfast local village members were waiting outside Jaijee Uncle’s house to speak with him. They each took a brief minute to discuss their issues with him and he would see how he could help. Clearly his arrival in the village had spread like wildfire. After he felt their issues had been heard we headed back to the villages to visit a few more families impacted by suicide. By early afternoon, we returned for Jaijee's house for lunch and then made the trip back to Amritsar.
Monday, March 17th
Today, we all headed to Amandeep Hospital, a well-respected, busy hospital specializing in orthopedic, trauma, neurological and plastic surgery (Amritsar's version of HSS). Amandeep Hospital relies heavily on regional anesthetic techniques, including spinals, epidurals, brachial plexus, lumbar plexus and femoral nerve blocks. Today, we worked with Dr. Sharma, one of Amandeep's incredibly talented anesthesiologists. In the operating theatre, we saw a ton of cases (including a bilateral knee replacement under CSE and a right humerus ORIF on a 4 year old done under inter scalene/axillary block). Due to strict limitations on ultrasound access because of issues with female infanticide, all blocks were done using nerve stimulator. The anesthesiologists are incredibly skilled and slick and are able to finish the block in about the time it would take us to set up the ultrasound. For CSEs, they place the spinal needle (without an introducer) next to the epidural needle (rather than through it), because doing so decreases equipment costs, and subsequently the cost charged to the patient.
Tuesday, March 18th
Today we returned to Amandeep Hospital and headed to the operating theatres dedicated to plastic surgery and pediatrics. There we met Dr Soni (a fantastic anesthesiologist) who works a lot with Smile Train, a Bill and Melinda Gates charity that works with local doctors and hospitals to provide cleft lip and palate repairs for free around the world. We saw two of these cases and Pam intubated one, while Jon did a spinal that involved a 26G Quincke needle and no introducer.
