So happy for you to join in and read my blog post for this week! This week was a very special one – starting with Raniyah’s birthday to getting to watch a surgery in ER. Alright, here we go!
Raniyah’s Birthday Celebration with a Tasty Czech Treat
Last Saturday was Raniyah’s birthday! We all travelled to Escazu to first walk around the Multiplaza Mall. I will have to admit, we go lost multiple times and we even got stuck in Zara because they seemed to have way more clothing options in the US. After the mall, we all Ubered to a Lolita-like gastronomy hub called “El Mestizo.” After much decision-making (well, actually, paralysis by choice) because there were SO many options, I decided to settle on a pork-based casado. Everything about the casado was pretty good, except for the beans, which tasted a bit bland for my liking. For dessert, instead of doing a birthday cake for Raniyah, we settled on a 3 different trdelniks to share between pairs. Trdelnik, which is a popular Czechian pastry. The base is a hollow cinammon roll, and the inside is filled with vanilla ice cream and other condiments. Vanessa and I decided on the banana pretzel trdelnik (shown below), which was just the right amount of salty and sweet. I was pretty shocked to see these being sold in Costa Rica (the last time I saw these were in Czech Republic), so it was a nostalgic experience.
Czech-inspired dessert AKA Raniyah’s birthday cake
Satisfying the Gelato Craving + Amor de Barrio
On Sunday, our cohort travelled to to Lolita first for the sole purpose of playing card games and eating gelato from Dolce Gelato. We of course played the classics (games we’ve developed since Day 1 with Asma and Kaira), including Uno and Monopoly Deal (which I swear is the longest game I’ve ever played to date).I got pistachio and italian cream, which were both incerdibly amazing – very creamy.
My 2 scoop order from Dolce Gelato, half-eaten.
After Lolita and card games, we walked over to a restaurant called Amor de Barrio, which had very similar vibes to Lolita – lots of small food huts inside that you could choose from. I ended up purchasing a wok dish that included a light stir fry of vegetables and beef. It was super good! This was overall a solid experience.
My wok order at Amor de Barrio. It has tomatoes, onions, beef, and potato wedges over a bed of rice.
Internship Takeaways During the ER Rotation at Clinica Biblica
Patient bed in the ER at Clinica Biblica
This past week, Raniyah and I rotated in the emergency department (or ER) at Clinica Biblica. It was interesting to notice how, firsthand, all the nurses and staff members were incredibly busy. Additionally, we rarely saw doctors roaming around the floor. Rather, it was mostly nurses walking around treating patients. At this hospital, patients have to pay or establish some form of payment, as well as report some sort of phone number to the ER reception before they can get admitted. This proved to be a potential disparity for some patients, when Raniyah and I noticed that some patients were so in pain that they could not talk properly to even get money from the bank or provide such a phone number. When we first walked into ER, we were greeted by the nurse triage center, which included these leather chairs that patients would sit on and await the next available nurse to take thier vitals. Raniyah and I saw one patient who had severe chest pain and felt like she could not breathe, and we observed how after a long delay of time, one nurse came by and just gave her a brown paper bag to breathe into/puke into, and then walked away. It seemed like there were quite a bit of paitents in “isolation” even in the non-COVID wing of the ER. However, these were not marked well; there was only a curtain that separated the patient from the outside.
Raniyah and I were very lucky to see a surgery being performed though. This was personally the first surgery that I have ever seen in my entire life. It was a general surgery. We saw a French tourist who had accidentally damaged her toenail while surfing, get her toenail removed under local anesthesia. The doctor that came in and did the surgery was so calm! As we watched the doctor inject the anesthesia in the patient, Raniyah and I couldn’t help but feel in pain alongside the patient as she screamed into her hands. However, I was shocked to see the size of scissors he used to cut her toenail off – it looked like it was very blunt for the size of her feet. Additionally, the entire surgery was done with the curtain open, so that was kind of interesting.
Another interesting item we saw in ER was in the storage room – the ebola protection kit. Raniyah and I were curious about the purpose of the kit now or if ebola was still an issue in Costa Rica. Overall, we definitely felt like the storage room could benefit from a bit more organization within the bins, as well as more routine sterilization of the entire ER floor.
In terms of devices or areas of innovation, Raniyah and I definitely think that some sort of device that could detect bacteria/viruses lingering on surfaces woudl be helpful for healthcare providers to eliminate noscomial infections. (Also, with our low-fidelity prototypes we built in the past month, we have collated them in a powerpoint and also were able to share this with our bosses this week in an update meeting!)
Storage shelf in the ER at Clinica Biblica.
Concluding Remarks
It’s hard to believe that I have a week left here in Costa Rica. I never thought this day would come – 2 months is a long time! As I continue resting up this long 3-day weekend and recovering my body, I also will have to begin packing my items for Houston.