As hard as it was to come back stateside from Africa, I couldn’t help but be comforted by the fact that the spring India elective had left the day before! If you are interested in engaging in global health work, Cornell Anesthesiology is undoubtedly the place to do it!
Here are some pictures and excerpts from residents Patti Pang, Beth Starker and faculty Stephanie Cheng who are in the middle of the spring elective in Punjab now…
“We start out our journey at JFK where Patti was post LiverTransplant and Beth and Post TL. Right before our flight, we are greeted with a Malarone tablet on the floor of the lounge. I take it as a sign of great things to come!
This was our first day in the hospital. We arrived and were issued OR slippers (which I'm sure were JCAHO approved and will be coming to Cornell soon) and a pair of excellent fitting scrubs.
We spent the rest of the day exploring a market, seeing the mosque, and looking all over for an ATM that actually had cash....
We showed the residents and attendings how to do tap blocks (two of them even got their hands on it). Tho we had to use a spinal needle and visualization of the needle is difficult, we were able to show them the three layers as well as the characteristic ovoid shape after injection of the local. There was so much interest that, in fact, they wanted to scrap all our other lectures in favor of more ultrasound lectures. We readily agreed to accommodate for the rest of our stay.
We also made it to the Golden Temple today, and despite the threats of thunderstorms, it was a gorgeous day with the perfect amount of overcast for some beautiful photos.
We also participated in the Langar hosted there. It happens to be the world's largest free kitchen and serves anyone who arrives, up to 300K people daily. The food was delicious and the whole process was very efficient.”