Hue Pediatric Hospital

We have spent the last week and a half at the Hospital in Hue, shadowing their physicians. It's been a lot to take in between the excellent teaching and experience of the physicians and the heart-wrenching reality of working with children that may never live a normal life again. I will probably have more to say about all of that later (we have been pretty busy), but here are some pictures from my phone for now! (Let it also be known that the Vietnamese love karaoke, and the doctors are not at all afraid of the mic... More pictures to come of course!)

Kim Long

On Thursday we visited the Kim Long clinic, run by a branch of catholic nuns here in Hue. They are some amazing people and all very dedicated to the work that they do. Through funding from donations and charities, they are able to provide free care to the area's most impoverished. (We have been in Hue's hospital for a couple days - pictures to come - where many if not most cannot afford the life-saving treatment or medications necessary, so I can only imagine the situation the folks that come to Kim Long clinic are in). We came to Kim Long on a day when they were not seeing patients because of the Tet holiday (lunar new year), but we were told they see about 200 patients a day between about 4 medical doctors. They also have volunteer doctors that come in to help on their days off from work. Overall, I have been blown away by the commitment that medical providers have to their patients - I think we can learn a lot from them in the U.S.

Entrance courtyard

The waiting room where patients cue up by numbered seats

Traditional remedies and herbs: since western medicine is very expensive, the doctors here will mix up a concoction of herbs depending on the patients' signs and symptoms to use as a tea or paste.

The dental room

The ultrasound machine with one of the sisters

An exam room

Patient bed

Robert Catherman's Pictures

Here are some photos from Day 1 of our time in Vietnam

https://picasaweb.google.com/116838983410005402433/2013Day1OnTheRiverTour?authkey=Gv1sRgCJHwmf-H7N-DXQ

Exploring Hue

Hue is the ancient capital of Vietnam, the king lived here in the forbidden city, which was modeled after China's forbidden city. Not far from the city center (an hour and a half boat ride for us) is Tu Duc's tomb, the king's summer home and final testing place. Apparently a group of men were volunteered to bury the king and then were killed so no one would know exactly where the king's body lay. (Another factoid I found interesting was that though Tu Duc had 20 wives, he had zero children. You don't have to work in infertility to put 2 and 2 together!)

Because of Hue's history, there are a lot more foreigners walking around than I expected, but people still are amused by our group of 14, and I can't blame them! We definitely stand out, especially in our bright orange matching shirts and scrubs.

The view from our hotel:

Mopeds... the family station wagon, and they are everywhere!. Top number of people I've seen on one so far is 5 - 2 parents and 3 kids.

LaRelle pointed this tree out to us. One day a year people appease the kitchen god by filling bowls and other kitchen items with their sins and throwing them at the tree, so all around this tree are the remnants.

We took a ride on this exciting dragon boat up the river to King Tu Duc's tomb. There are tons of these boats up and down the river that runs through Hue, and the families that own these and give tours on them also live on them. (You can see laundry hanging up in the back of many of them!)

The grounds at Tu Duc's tombsite and summer palace.

SPU Vietnam/Medrix Nursing Trip

This winter quarter, I am joining the group of SPU nursing students travelling to Vietnam for our clinical rotation. SPU's nursing program has partnered up with Medrix (a non profit working in Vietnam, see: http://medrix.org/) for several years to foster an exchange of medical knowledge and culture between the SPU students and local Vietnamese medical providers. Ten of us seniors nursing students pictured below are on this 5-week trip along with our four chaperones and teachers (LaRelle, Bethany, Robert, and David).

The airport at Hue, Vietnam. We finally reached our hotel in Hue after almost 30 hours of travel! We were all very ready for showers and bed after a delicious meal at Mr. Cu's Mandarin Cafe just across the street.

I will do my best to update everyone as often as possible (and with as many pictures as possible!), but the majority of pictures will come at the end when I can upload them onto my computer. Right now I am operating off of my iPhone's camera for the blog. =)

Thanks for all your support!

Krysta