Week 11

This week seemed eternal because it was the last before our spring break week off. We started the week working in teams and trying to give our analysis or interpretation about a short poem and a painting. I shall thank the effects of coffee to the accomplishment of that task. I really enjoy art and culture but never dedicated enough time to it, so observing paintings, and going to museums is something I enjoy. 

On Wednesday we worked on a country powerpoint presentation due on April. The task included choosing an English speaking country and we chose Fiji. In part it was a bad idea because that is the happiest country of the world and the beach seemed just beautiful, Monterrey seemed a bit depressing just by comparing the landscapes. Now I really need to visit Fiji before dying. Next day we decided to do our final project on the influence of Shakespeare in English language. 

On Sunday I went to the guard on ambulance and the day included three services of broken hips of geriatric patients, it seem that everyone had chosen that day to fall. We had a pair of other services, and we were not able to arrive to a scene on time, so there was nothing we could do to save a patients life after his heart attack.

Week 10

This week we had a long weekend to study for our partial tests. We had on Wednesday a quiz about the book we read, it was more or less difficult, I forgot a pair of facts and end getting a 90. On Thursday we had the option to work on our own without going to the classroom. I text a friend to pair up for the homework, I preferred to stay in the library studying for the pharmacology test that I was going to have that Saturday. That Sunday I was sent to an event on Cintermex where I went as a Red Cross paramedic to show what we do and the ambulances we work with. That way we can promote our work and make it easier to gain more donations. It was a lazy day, but I had a restroom just five meters away which feels relaxing (as there's no restroom in the ambulance were we spend the day). We took several pictures with children wearing our helmets. There were a lot of children since the Chicharines came to the event to give their show. 

Week 9

In this week we had a graded translation activity. I forgot to look for a dictionary and the ones in the library are not lend to take out of the building so they are kind of useless. Even though, the translation didn't went that bad. The story was written by Rulfo and it contained a lot of popular words that make a translation difficult. We saw a video about history of English and I preferred to see it at my home and do the task because I needed to study for my immunology test that I took on Saturday. It went regular. Ont he third session we made a summary of all the presentations about the book we are reading and with that we finished the book. This Sunday was a little more interesting that last one; I attended a crash, nothing serious. I got excited because I had the opportunity to get on the "libra" which is an automobile with all the hydraulic tools to destroy cars and opened them to extract people after a crush, but the service got canceled on our way to the site of the accident. This accidents are really common on rainy days like this one. I was able to attend another drunk fallen guy on the mud, its incredible the amount of people that end up seriously harmed just because of drinking excessively.  

Week 8

Translation is more complicated than what it seems. We practice translating a museum text and I constantly looked for words on google. On our second session of the week we made a summary about the book for this month, it was an easy task and a way to save us a lot of reading time. We were able to finish everything on time. My Sunday was a lazy one because I had only one service in all the day. In part it is boring not to have any patients, but on the other hand that is the goal of medicine and any health science. If we don't have patients that means that everyone is taking care for themselves and living safely. So even though I was all 12 hours just waiting inside the ambulance I had plenty of time to do homework. The only service I attended was a crush between a taxi and a motorcycle, there were no injured people.

Week 8 translation reflection

For us, museums are a place visited by many people, and within that population we can find individuals who are interested in art, culture and knowledge; so, it is very sad to encounter situations in which public documents contain many translation and syntax mistakes. This reflects a lack of interest and motivation in learning the proper way to express ideas on another language, and a part from that it gives us the impression of laziness because the person in charge of that task didn't even took the trouble to find someone competent enough to make the translation. 

Week 7

This last Sunday I had a lot of spare time to read while waiting in the ambulance to attend an in-calling service. Our first service was almost at mid day and the call involved a classical accident: a geriatric patient fell from her bed and fractured her left hip and ipsilateral knee. This kind of services are usually quite easy, we only need to transport her to the hospital using a ferule to prevent any other damage to her inferior extremity. During the transport time we usually take her vital signs and data. After this we ate inside the ambulance waiting for any notification on the GPS. Late that afternoon I attended my first "14" which is the code for corpse. Arriving to the residence we met the police who described the look of the patient, as we entered the whole family was gathered in the lobby of the first floor, they didn't quite know what had happened with their relative. As I entered the bedroom I nearly stepped on blood from the corpse. This lady was about 50 years old, she used to be a nurse who got paranoid and depressed after she broke her leg. She committed suicide by trying to cut her body, after what she used the backrest of her bed to hang herself. After determining her dead  being careful not to move any evidence to prevent us from getting into any trouble and getting the corpse's data we left. There's not much we can do in this cases, dead people belong to another department. That night the last patient was a drunk adult who was selling hot dogs at the corner of the street fell and hit his occipital bone with the sidewalk. We treated his injury and transported him to the Metropolitan Hospital of Monterrey. Drunk people usually have hypoglycemia because of the metabolic effects of the alcohol on the body's enzymes, so after being sure he had not neurological damage we decided to canalize him with a crystalloid sollution composed of 5% glucose. He was a difficult patient, he wasn't very cooperative. Basically this summarizes my Sunday.