Oct. 22, 2007

Photo Gallery

Washington, D.C. - This summer I had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take part in a Translational Health Science Internship in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I was able to stay with five other girls from Georgetown for six weeks. This class included lectures, public hospital visits, and laboratory work at a professional laboratory called INFANT. This class opened my eyes to new ways of learning and interacting with material used in the classroom.

The lab work focused mainly on Respiratory Syncytial Virus. RSV is prevalent in children at a young age. RSV can typically cause bronchiolitis and pneumonia. This virus can cause more problems in premature children due to their compromised immune system. Once we learned about RSV and some basic knowledge of how to experiment with viruses, we were able to carry out our own laboratory project that involved mice. I was paired up with another student to inject mice with RSV through their noses to study how the virus affected certain types of cells in their lungs. After waiting a couple of days after inoculation of this virus, we studied the immune system with the help of many scientists. It was fascinating to actually put into practice the ideas and concepts I had learned in class.

Along with studying the virus in the laboratory, I was also able to witness the effects of RSV during visits to the public hospitals. For four weeks I was able to visit four different public hospitals, each with their own distinctive qualities. Some were poorer or smaller than others, while others had many divisions and specialties. During these visits I shadowed pediatricians and experienced their day-to-day interaction with patients and children. I loved learning from these physicians, and how they immensely enjoy what they do for a living even though they receive the same compensation as a bus driver. This financial situation is due to the government funding given these public hospitals. The technology and quality of these hospitals were so underprivileged that many children had to be jammed in a room together while receiving oxygen treatments.

The hospital visits were personally my favorite part of the trip. I was able to witness surgeries, a couple of births, and meet many children that have changed my life. I will never forget the impact these children have had on my outlook on what most Americans take for granted. There were so many stories that it seems impossible to put them all into a paper that isn't twenty pages long!

One girl who I met during the last hospital visit was one of the most moving experiences. I was located in a room that was specifically used for children receiving physical therapy in order to discharge some of the mucous in their lungs that forced them to have respiratory and breathing problems.

The physical therapist we were with was in between patients when I looked outside the door to find a little girl with brown curly hair and blue eyes. She was in a wheelchair and had tubes coming out of her nose and several devices to hold liquids alongside her. She wanted to get out of her chair to run around, disregarding her physical state of distress, and roam around the hospital waiting area.

In a matter of minutes, the same girl came into the room I was in with a huge smile upon her face. According to the therapist she came often for treatments. I would have thought, given this circumstance, that she would be cranky or upset. Instead she was in high spirits. This girl had many problems that were brought on by a premature birth which included heart, brain, and pulmonary illnesses.

She saw the physical therapist on that particular day to help with the mucous in her lungs because she was having saturated oxygen treatments to aid her breathing problems. I watched as the physical therapist tried to help the girl by using her hands to massage the girl's ribcage region. The part that changed me the most was the coughing fit that she had to go through in order to relieve just a little pressure. She coughed hard for about 10 minutes straight.

I went away that day realizing how lucky I was to have the health that enables me to go out everyday and live the life that I want to. This girl, for a long time, will not be able to play sports or even get out of the chair that feeds her stomach or gives her the oxygen that is necessary for life. By the end of her session with the therapist, she walked out tired, but smiling just as she had been when she walked in.

The lessons that I learned during the six weeks I spent in Argentina are hard to put in words, or describe on paper. I will never forget the researchers, pediatricians, children, families, and places that I was able to experience; it changed my outlook on life. I now wake up every day, thankful for the health that I have that enables me to live my life.