Day Three: First Day of Work

Morning came early for the Albright group, as we woke up around 5:45 am and made it down for a breakfast of fried rice, eggs, and noodles at 7 am. The IEP team piled into taxis at 8 am and it was off to the hospital. Upon arriving, Dr. Lehnert was greeted by one of the doctors he worked with last year.

 

I am so excited that we started screening our first group of patients today. I was in charge of taking images and videos of patients for the intake group today, and I loved seeing all of the patients. They had such great attitudes, and it was very humbling to see how people can be so happy, even though they were given so little. It makes being upset about a lost volleyball match or a broken computer seem like a big to do about nothing. After obtaining the 42 patients' information, I went to the exam room where Dr. Lehnert took me under his wing and talked out his diagnoses with me, explaining why the patient may have their problem, what he can do to fix it, and how he will do it. I learned a lot in a short amount of time, like how the Achilles tendon looks and works, or how muscle spasticity affects how the patient walks. Below are some of the images of a few patients that we saw today.

This patient has returned to the hospital where the IEP team gave him surgery in 2010. He was not able to walk two years ago, and can now walk all by himself. He came back to see if there were any other minor fixes that could be made to improve his walk.

This cutie here is only two months old, and has two toes on her right foot which are fused together. Her fifth toe is connected to her fourth, and it also has a small extra bone. This may not seem like that much a a problem, but many children like herself have been forced to drop out of school at a very young age due to teasing and name calling associated with their deformity. Hopefully after surgery she will look forward to a better future.

This man has a deformed right foot, and uses a bamboo pole to steady himself. He also uses it as a replacement for his bum foot when he walks, like a cane.

This woman has a deformity called "lobster claw", and although it looks bad, she can fortunately walk normally and can even wear shoes. Dr. Lehnert has signed her up for surgery, and will hopefully have her foot feeling and looking better soon.

This little girl is 8 years old, and made friends with my dad quickly. As he was filming, she would always wave and him and the camera, giggling at the same time. Her feet are rotated outwards, forcing her to walk on the inside of her feet.

Tomorrow is January 1, so we won't be doing any work. Wednesday brings more screenings and more patients that are happy to see us, yay!