A Real Eye-Opener

Grady and I went to dinner yesterday evening with a seventh semester medical student and his wife - Ernie and Emily. We had a good time and learned a lot about what it's REALLY like to be working at the clinics, hospitals and future semesters in medical school. Ernie is very bright (in the top of his class). He offered encouragement for Grady and shared his experiences from previous semesters.
He told us about the time he was performing a gynecological exam on a patient and the lights went out at the hospital. Ernie had to use the light from the doctor's cell phone so he could complete the exam.
He told us there is NEVER soap and sometimes no paper towels in the bathrooms at the hospitals.
He told us of completing part of his ob/gyn round (two weeks of hanging out on the beach and delivering one baby after another).
He told us of making casts for the patients with whatever material was available (you have to be resourceful and creative).
He told us of patients dying because the hospital simply ran out of a certain medicine.
He told us of mothers delivering their babies out in the hallway (with no assistance or medicine) because the rooms were full (mothers are not taken into the delivery room until they are actually giving birth. The hospitals do not provide epidurals).
He told us about one ER room being so small that he was practically sitting in the lap of a patient he just stitched up while helping the next patient.

It was an intense and exciting conversation. Definitely an eye opener into the life of a medical student at UAG.