First Day and Dengue Fever

I start my second day at Angkor Hospital for Children (AHC) today. Yesterday was primarily a check-in and register with the hospital. There were five of us in the check-in group, all of us from the U.S. The couple from the west Japanese-American doctors from Fresno --- he’s a pediatric orthopedic surgeon, and she’s a radiologist. The couple from NYC included a Chinese-American doctor (just graduated from med school) and her Cambodian-American husband. We are all now officially displayed in the lobby of the Friends Center, which is the only place at the hospital where the general public can visit without a pass.


My Official Pass

I will be spending today in the outpatient clinic following a nurse there, then spend the rest of the week following nursing on some of the other nursing units – inpatient tomorrow, critical care on Thursday and OR/surgery on Friday. At least half of the nurses here are male, including the head of nursing and the head of nursing education. This week I will be learning instead of teaching, I think. I hope to have pictures tonight, but so far I haven’t filled out the paperwork that allows me to take photographs at the hospital.

I will also be sure to put on the bug spray today. There is a slight Dengue fever epidemic going on here right now with about a fourth of the patients listed on the ER board yesterday as having “DF”. And today I will be amongst all of the cases coming in from the area. Dengue fever is, of course, transmitted by mosquitoes, and there was no immunization against it.