The One Where We Saw Babies In Jars

We spent the last two days learning about Deccan Medical School with Dr. Maimuna. She is the head of the Microbiology department at the medical school and she gave us a tour of the campus as well as the associated hospitals. One of the things I enjoyed the most from the medical school is the anatomy museum they have—literally rows and rows of jars with babies in them. As unorthodox as this seems to us, babies are apparently more available than adult cadavers are. They even dissect babies in class more than adult cadavers, and keep them in buckets of formaldehyde. It seems so unsanitary and creepy, but it was totally normal for them. We sat in on a lecture and caused quite an uproar because our group of boys and girls all sat together. We met a few med students who are actually from the US but have come here for school, so it was really interesting getting to speak to them. Dr. Maimuna took us to a rural hospital that the med students do rotations at, and then a bigger hospital they are associated with (Princess Esra Hospital). At Princess Esra we were allowed to scrub in and watch a hysterectomy, which was a little bit terrifying because the surgeon was being REALLY mean to her residents.

We also visited an HIV testing center and learned about the methods of testing they use and the steps for treatment for HIV positive patients. There was a poster for an HIV marriage bureau that I think is totally inappropriate, but maybe it works there.

Back at the med school, their president was really trying to get us to recruit people from the US to bring back here for med school haha. We also got a look at their dorms, and they were really nice! Not nice enough to get to me to go to India for med school, though. Teehee.