Medical Student Elective Summary 2010

Vital Links for Humanity, Inc. - Medical Student Elective Visit

Loan Pham - Senior student U of Airzona - Medical College, Tucson, AZ.

 

My experience in Vietnam was eye-opening. My colleagues and I worked at the Pediatric hospital #1 in Ho Chi Minh City for six weeks. We saw things in Vietnam that you would rarely see in America. Some of those were rare congenital diseases but for the most part, it was a difference in culture and how the medical system worked. Physicians were always hard at work at the hospital. In the outpatient clinics, I was surprised to learn that 4,000 patients are seen daily at the hospital with each doctor seeing 150-200 patients. That number is incredibly high when you compare it to the 30-40 patients that American doctors see a day. Also, the hospital was in desperate need of medical equipment. When we were in the emergency department, it was not rare to see children being manually ventilated by family members because there was a shortage of ventilators or the ventilator in the department is broken and the cost of repairs is too high. There was much heartache that occurred. Many families had to make the difficult decision to voluntarily discharge their children from the hospitals before the children were ready because the families could not afford the hospital costs.

 

The language was also difficult to deal with if one did not know the right doctor and did not know the language. Luckily, I speak Vietnamese so it was not an issue, but one of my colleagues spoke only English and I felt that the barrier hindered her from learning as much as she could. It is true that some doctors spoke English, in fact, some speak English very well. However, most doctors only knew Vietnamese in the different departments and so I had to do a good amount of translating.

 

The orphanages were an amazing experience too. Van is a great person to work with and Dr. Hang is wonderful. She has her own private clinic as well as a safe-house for abused women and/or pregnant women who need homes. She also has an orphanage that houses 10 children at the moment. She is the primary care provider for the children at the orphanages. I am happy to see that the children have routine and continuous medical care with such an experienced doctor. Also, the orphanages receive a large amount of pharmaceutical supplies that will enable the doctor to provide appropriate care without costing the orphanages a ton of money. The children were a delight to work with and they are so happy to see visitors. They loved the toys that we brought. It was a good experience to see both the medical aspect of the orphanage visits while having fun playing with the children.

 

We had plenty of time to travel. We got to see Can Tho, Dalat, Nha Trang, and all of Ho Chi Minh City. There were so many beautiful sights in Vietnam. The people are wonderful and respect you if you try to learn their language and culture.

 

All in all, the trip was an amazing, life changing experience that I will never forget. I will definitely go back to Vietnam sometime in the future. I think that Vital links is very special to Vietnam and I encourage people to take the time to be part of the organization and make a difference to the people in Vietnam.