The clinics are two mobile trucks with 4 cubicles in each. That allows for 8 teams at a time. There are 8 clinical Norwegian students. Last night I was with Karita. It was a light night and the only interesting case was a baby with paroxysmal breathing due to an aggravated pneumonia. Tonight I teamed up with Rundghild (prev. thought it was Woodhill and still not convinced I’m spelling that correctly). She’s a bit more confident and time efficient. She didn’t do the full examination. Instead she tailored each to the patient’s specific complaint. This is more what we might see in the States. Our first patient was a woman with a headache. Neuro exam didn’t reveal anything, but the doc came in and quickly discovered it was a UTI. If we had done a physical we prob would have found that. Second patient was a young girl (15 y/o) with endocarditis. First time I saw a case of it. She had her film from last year and the inflammation was insane. The doc said it was usually caused by Beta-hemolytic Strep. We referred her to another hospital. Third patient was a man who was complaining about chest pain and coughing. He clearly had sinusitis. He was diagnosed w/ URTI secondary to chronic sinusitis. Then we saw a woman who had flu-like symptoms. She complained about coughs and aches. We just gave her meds. Next we saw a man w/ a rash that he insisted on scratching. The doc said it might have been impetigo at some point, but it looked like a sore that was reinfected (nice job scratching old guy). The final patient we saw was a young woman (26). I called her from the waiting room. She was sitting there patiently. I saw her limping as she walked to the truck. It made me wince to see her like that cause she was clearly in substantial pain. She sat down and lifted her skirt. All I saw was a huge gaping wound and red everywhere. I was immediately alarmed. She said she was cooking rice and her boyfriend threw the boiling pot at her. There were burns on her wrists as well. It pains me just to write about it. I went to tell the doc immediately. At first he said she would need to go to the hospital. Simon (5th yr UCT Med Student kinda in charge) said it wouldn’t be necessary. We sat and questioned her. Rundghild went and got her a beverage quickly which was wise for a burn, but considering the incident was on Saturday there isn’t much that could be done. She told us about how the incident occurred at night and she was afraid to go to the hospital (dangerous streets). She would’ve gone on Sunday, but then she would have had to leave her son at home alone. So she waited. Until Tues night when our trucks came along. By the end of the night it was decided that we should just dress the wound and give her a social work referral. She was also advised to go to the hospital tomorrow. The red I saw was actually mercurochrome (ah SA, the things you’re teaching me!). What kind of animal throws scalding hot water at his gf? I guess the conditions here are unbearable and she said something that really triggered his anger. It still seems unacceptable. This is just a different world.