Copenhagen and the 'Heart' of the Program

Friday night in Goettingen was way more eventful then first expected. To make a long story short, an evening that was supposed to simply be dinner and snack shopping turned into an almost stolen ipod by a middle aged man in a bar. I guess I'll need to be more careful in the future, but when all was said and done I'm happy that everything turned out okay. I'd spend more time explaining exactly what happened, but their are definitely more important and interesting experiences to talk about. After the evening's events, we boarded a train for the small German town of Fulda and those of us who went were convinced that when we arrived the population of the city doubled. However, our greatest surprise was waiting for us on our night train to Copenhagen. When the train arrived, those of us who had reserved 6 bunk compartments noticed that our car was missing. We found the conductor who sorted things out...by upgrading us to two person compartments with a sink and storage space. It was great and I slept until we were only an hour and a half away from Copenhagen. I found it pretty crazy that I got better sleep on a train then I had the whole rest of my time here.

We were greeted in Copenhagen by dreary skies and fog, which only accented the high prices we found there. A half liter of beer ran us about $10 dollars as opposed to at most $5 in Germany. As a college student, these high prices were undesirable but we learned to accept them eventually. Our first afternoon was spent wandering around the city, which was very Americanized with it's modern shops set against old city architecture. Our first stop was Rosenborg Castle, which was originally built as King Christian IV's summer resident. Over time, it eventually was used as a royal reception hall and at this time is a museum showing hundreds of pieces from Danish royalty including original furniture. We were able to see the long hall which had both the King and Queen's thrones which were guarded by 3 silver lions. The most magnificent part of the castle was below where we saw the heavily protected crown jewels of the Danish royalty. They were stunning to look at as was the snow covered King's garden surrounding the palace. That night we ate dinner at a small bistro and then spent some time in an Old English pub before turning in for the night. Sunday greeted us with much better weather and the sun was out over the water which really helped accentuate the beauty of the city. Our group walked all over the city, seeing the free zone of Christiania, Amalienborg Palace which is the seat of the Danish government, various churches, the Haven a harbor area, and finally the little mermaid statue which was a gift to the city in honor of Hans Christian Anderson's book of the same name. Our group left early in the afternoon and thanks to the sun coming out, I was able to leave Denmark with a better impression and I will certainly return some day but next time I'll go in the summer with more money. Our train traveled to Hannover that night where we began our third and final week.

Monday morning began with a visit to the nephrology department of a Hannover hospital. Due to his son's appendicitis we weren't able to have our originally scheduled tour and instead one of the senior doctors talked to us about the German medical system as it compared to the American system. It was a very interesting discussion and really gave me a basis to compare our American system to the German system of insurance for everyone. I'm sure as the healthcare debate in America rages on I will be able to really have an idea of the possibilities. That afternoon we traveled to the cattle clinic which was a smelly experience that reinforced my desire to never be a veterinarian. This was punctuated by our time spent in a room with a dead cow and its amputated toe. I'll stick to medical devices. We followed the tour of the cattle clinic with a small tour of the city where we were able to see some dioramas of the city pre and post World War II. The damage the city sustained in the war was incredible. We then saw a couple of the man made lakes of the city which were frozen but we resisted the temptation to walk out onto them. Monday ended with coffee and cake followed by dinner in the evening.

On Tuesday, we traveled to the Heart and Diabetes Center of North Rhine Westphalia for a tour of the hospital and some insight into the research and procedures that are being done there. The hospital itself was very modern and the desire to improve the patients' experiences could be seen throughout the facilities. My group received a lecture on the genetic heart disease ARVC, on which one of the biologists at the center was doing extensive research on. We learned how it was passed on through families and also heard some tragic cases of the sudden death it could cause. The whole topic was exteremely interesting on the research level as the whole disease played out as somewhat of a mystery as much of the genetics of the disease has yet to be discovered. It was also unfortunate that a disease could be so deadly and yet show no symptoms until it has already proved to be fatal. Our next stop on the tour was to the department of telemedicine. This was very interesting as it involved doctors monitoring patients and collecting results such as EKGs over the phone. This technology seems to have a real future and I will be interested to see how it continues to develop and improve. After lunch my group put on scrubs and finally got to see heart surgery. Three of us were in an operating theater where a patient was receiving a redo on a previous aortic surgery to fix a dilatation. Our views of the procedure were not very good, but what we saw was still very interesting. The whole procedure was very methodical and the atmosphere was calm and the doctor's were very professional as they explained what was happening. The sawing through of the sternum was somewhat eerie to listen to especially when blood splashed up towards the end but overall I was not very affected by the gravity of the surgery. Towards the end I finally got to see what I wanted as I got an above view into the chest cavity and saw the beating heart and the lungs filling with air. It was a great experience to be able to see a live beating heart and I will always remember that sight. Tuesday evening we returned to Hannover where we had a large dinner to celebrate the end of our time with Nils, our awesome program coordinator. It was sad to see him leave but I hope that one day he will visit Texas and I will see him again. After dinner it was time to board the night train to Vienna, our final stop of the trip. I'm sure it will be another amazing experience and I will be back in my final blog to talk about it.