Medical Spanish in Peru

By Tina Lin – SALUD Program guest blogger traveling in Peru.
We went to the Gynecology ward in hospital Lorena this morning. It seems like patients in this facility do not really have privacy. I felt a little shocked initially that the doctors and students would just gather around the patient to discuss her case in front of her. The beds are lined up in a row next to each other. One patient can easily overhear what is wrong with the patient next to her. There were about 8 students/interns, 1 attending doctor and 3 nurses. I can imagine this may be overwhelming for a woman who is still grappling with the idea of having late stage of cervical cancer.
We saw about 7 patients in this early morning round. The most interesting cases were cervical cancer, woman with all three types of prolapse (rectal, vaginal and uterine), lady with pre-malignant tumor at the cervix and a 3-month pregnant woman with gastritis. It was especially hard to hear what the doctor was saying because he was soft-spoken. The age of the patients ranged from early 20s to late 40s.
After our visit to the wards, we asked questions about prenatal care and abortion in Peru. The doctor explained to us that prenatal care is recommended but most people from rural areas just choose not to visit the hospitals. On top of lack of follow up, the rural women often carry unwanted pregnancies. Sometimes they would try to self-abort or go to an un-professional doctor. This causes a lot of problem including visits to the emergency, infection and perforation of uterus. Abortion is illegal in Peru. Some woman would drink the juice of a certain herb called ruda that is known to abort pregnancy (we do not know if it really works).
Later on in the afternoon, I had Spanish class. We always have exams on Friday. This week I learned about pronouns and practiced more past tenses in Spanish. A classmate of mine just found out she passed her Boards. I start to wonder about what life would be like for me as a second year starting in August. At night, I went home to eat dinner and I spent a lot of time with the maid. She showed me pictures of her kids and told me about previous exchange students that also stayed at my house here. It was neat to see what other people have done. I also want to visit the farm that my family owns.