My Work

As a volunteer I have the flexibility to do a variety of things at the hospital. I do nurse's aid things like taknig blood pressures and pulses and doing exercises with the patients. I also do pre-med things like shadowing Dr. Harvey and Dr. Tenpenny  as they go on rounds or in surgery. 

The most useful thing I do is probably the physical therapy exercises. Many patients risk losing full mobility of some body part becaue of a surgery or wound. I did regular exercises, for instance, with a man who had broken his upper arm by falling from a tree. This is, I am told, a very common cause of injury. The man is 60 something years old.

In another case a little girl had fallen into a fire and received an enormous burn on the back of her left leg. The wound was healing without a skin graft, but she could no longer straighten her leg. Her leg muscles had begun permenantly contract. On her I performed a few leg exercises that I'd learned in my CNA training. They caused her a fair bit of pain, but I saw some improvement and, at the end, I think we were friends. 

I did similar arm exercises for a man named Theophil. Such a kind person, he taught me a lot of French as we did his exercises. I never learned his wife's name, but she was nice too.

I am also allowed to observe surgeries and today I played a helping part in a C-section. Unfortunately, for today's surgery, the child was dead in the womb- a sober operation. Most of the surgeries are pretty gruesome, but here are some not-so-gruesome pictures to give you an idea of the operating room and its staff.

Above is Marie-Rose, the head nurse and woman-in-charge of the operating room, or "The Bloc," as we call it. Marie-Rose is Dr. Harvey's most trusted nurse, and for good reason. She is incredibly competant and very big hearted. Just today she taught me to insert an IV into the hand of a patient who needed more fluids. Then she offerred her own hand and insisted I do another for practice. Such a giving person.

Above, moving left to right, are Dr. Tenpenny, Dr. Scharrer, and my buddy Ben who is a pre-med student like me.

Another way I am able to help is by giving blood.

After donating my blood, I watched it drip down into the veins of a little girl who has been crippled by polio and terrible wounds.

But the way I've been able to help the most people is probably through my English classes, but I'll tell you about that next time.

I miss you all.