Getting through the most challenging years of her medical career
Iyer's medical internship involved working as a junior doctor at a government clinic at Ralegaon village in Yavatmal between April 2009 and June 2009.
Those three months, she says, were "the most challenging years" of her medical career.
Describing the adverse climatic conditions there, Iyer says, "It was summer and the temperatures soared above 40 degrees. I had to travel about 45 minutes in a local bus most of the time sitting on the heated engine cover next to the bus driver because there were few buses and the ones that plied were always overcrowded."
Every day, before she stepped out to work, she'd place an onion on her head to absorb the heat, then cover her face with a dupatta and wore gloves and socks as well.
During the three months she worked there, Iyer empathised with the problems of the rural folk and became one among them.
Cotton farming is the main occupation of people at Ralegaon, a village in Vidharbha region of Maharashtra. But due to untimely rains, the crops would perish which is why 80 per cent of families who lived in the village were financially insecure.
"Suicides were common. So were snakebites. Almost every day, a jeep would land at the clinic with a bunch of people who had sticks in their hand. Someone would have indulged in a fight and his head, hands and legs bleeding," Iyer explains of the cases the clinic would encounter on a day-to-day basis.
"One farmer's hair had come off the scalp, one had a serious injury closed to the eye," adds Iyer who has fixed quite a few injuries during her three-month internship period.
Since there was no operation room or ICU at the Ralegan clinic, the aspiring doctors could only perform minor sutures; surgeries were recommended to the Yavatmal government hospital.
Iyer was posted into the women ward where she encountered women patients with teenage pregnancies, cysts in the uterus and ovaries.
"Most of them did not know what contraception was," she shares.
"Others did not know whom to share these problems with. One of them had come to the clinic complaining of bleeding and extreme stomach pain. Medical tests revealed that she had a cyst, which had grown to match the size of her uterus. Fortunately, this lady in question was old enough that we could afford removing her uterus."
After the surgery, when Iyer spoke to her, she realised that although the warning signs had begun quite early, the lady was ignorant about the gravity of the condition and did not know whom to confide in.
This explanation, she says was consistent among most women who consulted her.
Full article in the link below.
http://www.rediff.com/getahead/slide-show/slide-show-1-career-endless-days-sleepless-nights-what-it-takes-to-become-a-doc/20131007.htm#1
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