Thursday, August 08, 2013

Week 4: Bonn, Hannover. and Norderney


            This week again was another busy one, especially considering we were in three different cities within five days. On Monday we learned about the history of anesthesiology, such that when nitrous oxide was first tested in 1845 by William Morton that it did not work, but when Ether was used just a short time after it worked and was then used in surgery. The next day we went to the Stoeckl Museum for the History of Anesthesiology, which was fantastically set up. It was also very cool to have Dr. Stoeckl himself give the tour of the museum that he had personally founded. We had a lecture in the afternoon about “Medicine in the West” where I learned, among other things, that the medical school in Salerno chose the Galenic form of medicine over the Methodist form, which affected all of the other medical schools in countries such as Italy in the future.
            On Wednesday we departed for Hannover. Once there, we went to the MHH (“M-ha-ha”), the medical school in Hannover. This was one of my favorite visits of the entire program thus far, I think mainly because we got the opportunity to meet with not only a heart surgeon, but also some of her patients that have had “artificial heart” LVADs put in. The doctor overall was very encouraging, and even though I personally don’t want to go to medical school, she made me seriously think about it through seeing how much she enjoyed doing what she does. I can’t wait to be a part of medical development some time in the future, hopefully helping to develop even better devices for patients like the ones at this hospital. After that, we went to the Axolotl Rehabilitation Research Center, where we learned from Dr. Reimers about the factors that allow Axolotl’s to regenerate different parts of their body. She also showed us how the research done on Axolotls is used to apply to human medicine and how they are currently applying their research to mice. I enjoyed seeing the curiously cute and amazingly regenerative Axolotls a lot. What I did not enjoy as much was the spider room, in which there were free hanging spiders hanging everywhere you looked, whose webs are used to apply to medicine as well for wound healing. I wish we could have stayed longer in Hannover to explore it more, but in the few time we were there I learned a lot and enjoyed every minute of it.
            The next morning we departed for Norderney. After getting off of the ferry to the island (on which we were able to see seals), we went straight to a bike rental location. We got on the bikes and went to the mud flats, which are extremely unique to the region. I have definitely never experienced anything like the mud flats before, but being ankle deep in the mud was actually quite soothing. We also got to learn about the mud flats from Mr. Rahmel, who showed us some of the different species living there such as crabs and worms. The next day was started with a bike tour of the island from Mr. Rahmel as well. Along with seeing the absolute beauty of the island, we got to learn about different birds that live there such as the one which travel the longest nonstop distance to migrate out of any other bird in the world. After that, we went a health clinic on the island, which works with patients through the island’s non-pollinated air and temperate water through therapy in order to heal patients of complications such as “burning out” and COPD. Presented with the data that shows how and why the center actually works, it was intriguing to see how they are able to help patients through simple therapy and relaxation. I can definitely see why Norderney is a resort type of island where Germans go to heal and rest, with it’s beautiful beaches, clean air, and laid back atmosphere there is no way to not enjoy yourself there.
            This week (like the others) went by extremely fast due to being so busy, but everything that we did was extremely worthwhile and I benefitted a lot from it. I am definitely ready to be back in one location for more than two days though, as travelling so much is exhausting. 

No comments: