Hannover

Our first day in Hannover wasn’t even in Hannover, but fun nonetheless. We travelled to Duderstadt to the Otto Bock Center. After a video presentation about the company, we were shown around the showroom to see the different products. They have different prosthetics and orthotics based on cost and the mobility of the patient, and the technology varies based on this. The most impressive to me were the Genium, which can walk backwards and up and down stairs and the prosthetic arm that uses the still intact nerves to move the arm. We also saw the production facilities which were interesting. We saw where they make feet out of a liquid that turns into foam, the different parts of the knee joints, and other parts of the legs. We also saw how they test products such as feet or joints by putting them through two million cycles. One of the best was the storage rooms. It is in a huge room and completely automated.

Tuesday was one of the best days of the trip so far. It started with a trip to the cattle clinic and the Hannover vet school. It was great to compare the aspects of human and veterinary surgeries. It seems like human surgeries are much more sterile conscious, but as we learned from Dr. Wasser, cattle can block off infections and are much less susceptible to sepsis. After a look around the Rathaus, and lunch, we went on one of the most exciting visits ever. The zoo. We saw giraffes, lions, wolves, caribou, addaxes and snowy owls named Harry and Hermione. The guide also took us to see a polar bear feeding which was fun. Next to the polar bears were seals and sea lions which we saw being trained. The sea lion would wave a hand, run up to the trainer or give her a kiss. I wanted to take one home. We also spent time seeing the hippos. When we walking on to the balcony, they came up with their mouths open asking for food. After the tour, we went back to see the other animals that we missed, such as the elephants, tigers, great apes, sloths, reptiles, kangaroos, emus, pigs, Guinea pigs, rabbits, chickens and others. We stopped to feed lorikeets a banana and to see the wallabies. I wanted one of each to take home, too. I think we stopped counting how many fun facts Dr. Wasser told us. One problem that zoos have today is breeding the endangered species and breeds, since the main focus of them is to breed animals. Some species are getting too interbred and some can’t be brought in because there are too few or they are too expensive to maintain.

Wednesday, we went to the nephrology department and learned more about the German medical system. Even though the systems are different, doctors here take advantage of the system just as much as in the US. They prefer private insurance patients, milk them by ordering extra tests and procedures and make the initial diagnoses for inpatient hospitalizations worse than it actually is so that they can they can be paid more since the patient is I know that doctors don’t have to pay much for medical school and other costs such as malpractice insurance, but I don’t think I could practice in Germany. To have an allowance for the procedures seems kind of silly, but it makes sense from the government and taxpayers’ side. We also saw the dialysis unit and learned about the mechanisms of the process. In the afternoon, we learned about Axolotl research. As a person fascinated by stem cells, this was uber exciting. Even though the regeneration process is known, the details and the exact differences are still unknown since the research is new. They have proven that AmbLOXe expression can quicken the healing process in human cells and mice, and the expression within an animal differs based on whether the skin cells are on a leg or the back. Axolotls are also much less susceptible to cancers and live much longer than other animals of their size. This kind of research shows how simple yet extraordinarily smart evolution can be.