Duderstadt Otto Bock

We had an amazing tour of the main Otto Bock facility in Duderstadt! The hospitality we were shown was amazing, the building was so high tech I felt like we were in a sci fi movie. I think my favorite room of the whole facility was their storage and shipping room. The technology being used to run the whole operation was just mind boggling. It was all computerized to the point where the system even does an analysis of the items most needed and arranges the whole storage facility in such a way that will make things go faster the next morning.

But still this room doesn’t top their medical advances in prosthetics. I still can’t believe that they have found a way for people to be able to operate a prosthetic limb using the remnants of their nerves. Advances like these only make me wonder all the more what the future has in store for people and technology.
Jan 10, 2011

Charite Museum

The Charite museum is a collection of anatomical specimens and medical artifacts. This was by far one of my favorite museum tours, our guide was great, he made the tour really enjoyable and inter active. The room that left the biggest impact on me was the specimen room, where there were preserved tissues, organs, and even fetuses. What I liked about this room was the variety of specimens, ranging from healthy to diseased, it was great to be able to compare and contrast them.
Jan 7, 2011

Visit of Concentration Camp

The cold snow lay all around us, as we made our way through the Sachenhausen concentration camp. I felt a heavy silence overtake me and my mood became solemn. My thoughts wondered to WW2 and the atrocities done against humanity. I think about how I don’t understand how these things can happen. How can human beings hurt one another so cruelly? How does the world allow such actions to occur? I don’t understand, we live in such a beautiful world yet we leave behind such horrible legacies. We walked through the buildings which used to be a hospital. We learn about the people, so called “doctors” and how they conducted research on prisoners, and how they cold bloodedly killed people through neglect. All the while I realize how cold it is, and I wonder how must have all of the imprisoned people have felt, starved, sick, and certainly not clothed for the harsh winters of Germany.
Jan 7, 2011

Some Program Tours in Berlin

Talk about fun. We visited the Charite teaching hospital where we go to practice intubating a dummy, admittedly I failed twice, both of my attempts at getting the trachea tube into the trachea failed miserably with it ending up the Dummy’s stomach.
We visited the Otto Bock Science Center where we were taken on an interactive tour of the facility. I was astounded by the kinds of procedures that are now possible. For example, people can now have operations done so that they can control a prosthetic arm with the use of their actual nerve impulses. How amazing is that, it really makes me wonder if we can do these kinds of procedure now, how will this technology evolve in the future? I t seems to me like the possibilities are endless.

The Museum of Hygiene (LOL) great place to visit, very modern and extremely interactive. I recommend it for sure. We had a mini assignment where we had to introduce our room to the rest of the group. I was partnered with Paul and we chose to further describe the glass cow and the giant tongue among other objects. This was highly entertaining and a fun way to learn, I really enjoyed it.

We visited the Robert Koch institute, although not my favorite museum it was truly fascinating being in a place dedicated to a person who has done so much for society and the scientific world.
Jan 7, 2011

First Free Weekend

Berlin is huge and filled with so much history. I spent my first free weekend with Sarah. It was great being with her. We visited the Berlin zoo, it was huge, the animals where so active, it was my best zoo experience ever. I also got a recording of a pooping polar bear!!! I probably shouldn’t be too proud of that, but I am!!
We stopped by a Christmas market and shared a shokolate crepe, it was amazing, so so good. Of course the Christmas market was pretty and cool too. We explored a shopping center and along the way took lots of pictures with the Berlin bear statues that are all over the city.

On Sunday we took the Underground Subway all the way to the Olympic Stadium and took a guided tour, we got to sit in the VIP chairs, and had a look at the locker rooms among other things.

We visited the Jewish Museum and the Checkpoint Charlie museum as well. Both museums offered interesting and humbling displays. For example at the Jewish Museum there is a tower, called the holocaust tower, in which you go in to have a taste of what it was like to be imprisoned. It was terrifying, the room was as cold as the temperature outside over 30 feet high and the only light came from a slit in the concrete walls at the very top. All I could do was stare at the light while fighting the urge to panic. I took comfort from the fact that Sarah was only a couple of feet away from me. This experience lasted less than a minute but I never want to go into that tower again.

The Check Point Charlie Museum focused on the cold war and the Berlin Wall. Its displays showed how people from risked their lives and created new and imaginative ways of escaping from East Berlin to West Berlin.
Jan 6, 2011

New Year’s Party at the Fiest Mile

Ahh!!! What a way to welcome the New Year. Doing something new and exciting, eating an XL Shokolate Bretzel (chocolate pretzel), surrounded by great people and enjoying the aerial view from atop a giant Ferris wheel. Not to mention being in Berlin at the Brandenburg gate!! Oh and of course having the best snowball fight ever wasn’t a bad thing either. Plus I got to see David Hassel Hoff and Paul Potts. I’m gona go ahead and say this new years gona be hard to beat! I must say I was surprised at how free and easy going the atmosphere was, I felt completely at ease and content, I suppose in part it may have been that I was in a large group of people.
Jan 6, 2011

Blog 5, Hannover/Vienna

The first day back in Germany, we were in Hannover. The group split up in the morning so that the vet students could go to the vet school and the rest of us could go to the medical school. We had a bit of a problem at the med school because the doctor that was supposed to talk to us and give us a tour had a family emergency that he had to deal with. Fortunately, the head of the nephrology department was able to talk with us for a while instead. He mainly focused his talk on the differences between the health care systems of Germany and the United States. It was interesting hearing a doctor’s perspective on this. He did a good job of presenting all of the facts and offering his opinions where applicable. We kind of came to the conclusion that there are many flaws with both systems. It’s a complex issue where many considerations need to be taken. In the afternoon, we moved on to the cattle clinic. We got a tour of the clinic and an overview of some of the medical practices involved with care of cattle. The surgical methods they use on cattle are surprisingly unsterile, but it still is effective. We got out a bit early so we took a short walk around the city, seeing how it has grown over the years by looking at some models. Tuesday was one of the coolest days of the whole trip. We went to visit the Heart and Diabetes Center at North-Rhine Westphalia. It is a leading center for both heart and diabetes procedures. The group split up so that half could watch heart surgery while the other half had a tour of part of the center. I went to surgery first in the morning and saw a double bypass procedure. This procedure differed from the one I saw a few weeks ago in that this heart was not put on bypass. Instead, small areas of the heart are stabilized at a time to minimize motion so that sutures can be applied. Small plastic shunts allowed portions of the radial artery to be used for bypass. The other cool difference about this procedure is that we got to see it through to the end. I had no idea that the surgeons basically just wrap the sternum with metal wire to hold it together while it heals, and then just leave the metal wire in permanently. In addition to watching the heart surgery, I spent a bit more time watching what the anesthesiologist was doing. The computer program he was using was pretty amazing. It monitored every physiological parameter and kept track of every drug that was administered to the patient. The anesthesiologist simply recorded when he was changing a bag out or when he was putting in a new syringe. In addition, the anesthesiologist explained some of the things, and answered questions about things like whether the patient had diabetes. All of this could be looked at in the computer program he was using. Later in the day, the other group went in to watch surgery and my group went out to the ventricular assist device (VAD) unit of the center. We met with the VAD coordinator, who explained about and showed us all of the different VAD’s and full artificial hearts that they use. That was awesome because we have heard or read about many of these devices in theory, but it is quite a unique experience to be able to touch them and pass them around. These are very expensive devices, so having an opportunity like that was quite unique. After that, we went to meet some patients that actually had VAD’s or artificial hearts implanted in them. They were in fairly good spirits, and let the doctors explain each of their cases and the type of hardware that they had. It was depressing to think that each of them really only has up to about 2 or 3 years to get a heart transplant before they start having serious problems with clots forming. Apparently one of the patients already has pulmonary emboli visible on x-rays. It was very cool to meet these patients, because it serves to keep people like engineers and researchers grounded to what they are doing. It can’t be thought of as a purely scientific problem. You have to take into account the human element of it. For instance, some of the machines, while they may function almost perfectly, are so loud that patients have a really hard time sleeping with them.

That night, we had to say good bye to Nils unfortunately, and then leave on the night train for Vienna. That first day in Vienna, we woke up very refreshed from another long nights sleep on the train. (That was a joke.) The first day we mostly just toured the city, visiting the St. Stephens cathedral and the catacombs underneath it. Vienna is a really nice city, and it was great weather for a walking tour around the city. In the afternoon we went to the Café Demel, where we got coffee and chocolate cake. Both were excellent. Thursday we went to the medical school in Vienna in the morning and heard a talk on the differences in the education systems between Austria and the United States. There are quite a few differences, such as different types of high schools that you can go to depending on what you plan to do with your life, which you are placed in as young as 4th grade. Later in the day we visited the Josephinum, where most impressive display was the collection of medical wax sculptures that were used to teach anatomy to students before more sophisticated models could be built. Each of them is basically a work of art as well as a teaching tool. Later, we went to the pathological museum. This museum has over 50,000 specimens of both wax casts and real anatomical pieces. The focus was on pathology, so we got to see the effects of many different diseases. As gross and odd as some of it was, it was still one of my favorite parts of being in Vienna. The Opera that night was a very unique experience. It’s amazing how much of the humor we could pick up even though we didn’t understand what was being said or what they were singing about.

The next morning we went to the Spanish horse training center. It was quite a tranquil experience to simply sit and watch horses for about 2 hours. The stadium is all really nice and all made out of stone. In the afternoon we went to the Sigmund Freud house. This is where Sigmund Freud both lived and worked for most of his professional life. Much of the furniture is missing because it is in England where he fled to during the second world war. We had a lecture while we were in the house about the life of Freud and some of his ideas. It’s a pretty amazing thing to have a lecture in the exact place where the lecture is most relevant. After the Sigmund Freud house we went to the Vienna Museum. This museum gave a good overview of the history of Vienna, including the two famous sieges. There were lots of weapons and suites of armor from the battles outside the city.

The final day in Vienna we went to the Natural History Museum. This museum reminded me of other natural history museums that I’ve been to, especially with the dinosaur fossils and archeological artifacts. My favorite exhibit that we saw was the Body Works animals. I’ve seen the Body Works human exhibit before, but seeing animals was somehow totally different. My favorite pieces were the animals that were only the cardiovascular system. From a distance they look like the entire animal, only painted red. However, when you get up close to them, you can see that there are only blood vessels present. In the afternoon after the museum, we went shopping around town, and then headed to the big farewell dinner. It was a great end to one of my favorite trips in my life. I’ll never forget my experiences in Germany, and all of the things that I learned.

I’d like to thank Dr. Wasser, AIB, and Nils for making everything we did possible. You guys helped us get the most done and have the most fun we could in the short time that we had. Thanks!

Back in the USA!!

I cannot believe that the trip is over. It seems like just yesterday I was pulling into George Bush International Airport mentally preparing myself for my first plane ride. Now I’m an expert. I never would have guessed that I would have enjoyed Germany so much. I knew that I would like, but since I hate the cold I never expected to love it that much. In our first orientation meeting Dr. Wasser said that he always has trouble forcing the students to go back home. Six months ago, I just rolled my eyes and said to myself, “not me Dr. Wasser I love Texas, it’s going to be way too cold over there for me.” Now I know that he was right. Three weeks seems like a long time, but the time just flew by.

Over the past three weeks I became very close to many wonderful people, met people from all over the world, gained many once in a lifetime experiences, and learned how to speak enough German to ask if there is a skunk and the Potato Main Station. (OK maybe I learned a little bit more than that.) There were so many beautiful things that we saw, and so much knowledge that we gained. I am finding it very hard to explain everything to my friends and family. Every time I explain something I feel like I am not giving it justice. You have to see it with your own eyes, feel it with your own hands, and hear it with your own ears to fully understand the experiences that we shared.

Well now it is time to come back down to real life. No longer am I spending “Monopoly money.” It is time to go back to school, work on applications, and study for the MCAT. I am very grateful for all the time that everyone spent on the program. Even though we had a few hic-ups here and there, I think the program was perfect. I could not have asked for anything more. I will remember all the crazy things we did together, all the museums, tours, and walk throughs, all the hospital visits, and even the lectures for a very long time.

When in Vienna!

The last several days of our trip were spent in Austria. We took an overnight train from Hannover to Vienna. This was quite an experience. I was actually very amused by it. We had reserved beds for the entire group. There were 6 beds in one compartment. This meant that 6 people, with all of their luggage had to fit in as 8ft X 8ft closet. There were three beds on each side stacked on top of each other. After about an hour of manipulation, we finally fit all of our luggage into the compartment and laid on our beds. I think that an overnight train to Vienna was a good idea. We didn’t have to go through all of the security needed at an airport. Considering the circumstances, I actually got a good night’s sleep. I woke up a few times but overall it was good.

In the morning the train travelled through the Austrian countryside. It was gorgeous. It looked just like the scene from the Sound of Music where Julie Andrews is singing in the hills. The first thing we did when we finally arrived was go to the hotel to freshen up. Then it was time to explore. Throughout the week we went to visit the hospital to learn about the German medical system, the Sigmund Freud museum, the anatomy museum with thousands of wax models, St. Stephen’s Cathedral, and the Natural History Museum. The most interesting thing for me was seeing all the wax models. These were used by Medical students many years ago. It was unbelievable how detailed and accurate these models were.

One of the weirdest this that happened in Vienna was one night at our hotel a little boy walked into our room. We had forgotten to lock the door one night and in the middle of the night I woke up to someone walking in my room. I thought that my roommate had gotten up to go to the bathroom, but then she turned around to go back to the bathroom. Weird. Then the little boy came back and tried to get in the bed. That’s when we realized that it was a little boy. He was crying and looking for his mom. We went down the hall to find her, but she was nowhere to be found. As we were walking downstairs we ran into his mom. So moral of the story is always be sure to lock your door, you never know who will walk in.

I really enjoyed Austria. I think that the countryside is very beautiful. However, I did not stay long enough to decide if I liked it better than Germany. We were in Germany for so long that it almost felt like home. One of the things that I really liked about Vienna was their transportation system. It was easy to maneuver. It was probably the easiest city to get around. Even though I liked Vienna a lot, it will be very nice to finally go home.

Copenhagen!

I am not going to lie, I was a little worried about going to Denmark at first. I knew nothing about it, other that it is freezing cold there. It is practically the North Pole. I would much rather stay in Berlin an extra night and not have to worry about carrying all of my heavy luggage with me. I was pretty much just along for the ride.

The weekend started in Gottingen after the awesome tour of Otto Bock. We arrived at the main station around 5pm. We needed to kill 5 hours before we boarded the 12 hour, overnight train to Copenhagen. We decided to take a walk around the city to find a nice restaurant. We found a small German place to waste sometime. The food was delicious. On the way back to the hauptbahnhof we stopped at a grocery store to buy snacks for the long train ride.

The train ride was much better than I had expected. I had a whole compartment all to myself. I could lay across all 3 seats ans still have more than enough room for all of my luggage. The train arrived in Copenhagen around 11:30am after an hour and a half delay. As soon as we got there we found an ATM, stored our big luggage, and found the tourist information center. Here is where the weekend begins.

On Saturday we went on a tour of the Rosenborg Palace. It was pretty neat. There were hundreds of ornate paintings and the treasury was filled with swords, pistols, and jewelry with amazing detail. After the tour we headed back into town to check into out hostel. The receptionist was so amazed that we were actually from Texas. (This is actually a pretty common occurrence.) We dropped our bags off and went out to do some shopping and eat dinner. When we arrived at the hostel we were surprised to find two people already there and two more people will come later. The four of us were in an 8 person dorm style room. This normally would be fine, except one of the guys snored extremely loud ALL night. Somehow I managed to sleep through the entire thing. However, the other 3 weren’t as lucky.

The next morning we checked out and met with the rest of the group around 9:30. We stopped at a small bakery to grab breakfast then went on a walking tour of the city. Our first stop was Christiana, a self-governing free town for people with alternative lifestyles. Then we continued on through New Haven (Nyhavn). This is a street that runs along the harbor. It is filled with colorful townhouses, seafood restaurants, and delicious hot dog stands. We then walked through the government area on the way to the famous Little Mermaid statue. This was the main attraction of our tour since it is the most visited site in Copenhagen. Now it was time to head back to town. We arrived at the train station with enough time to get fod, take our bags out of the locker, and catch our 3:20 train to Hannover.

Overall, I was very impressed with Copenhagen. It was not what I had expected. It was rather warm on Saturday and cold but sunny on Sunday. It rained for a little while when we first arrived, but not enough to ruin our fun. The city is a bit more pricey than Germany, but I had expected that. For example, I paid 50 DKK for a meal from McDonalds, which is about $8.50. The town is filled with colorful buildings, beautiful waterways, energetic English speaking people, and a unique history. I am disappointed that I did not come during the summer so that I could see the famous Tivoli gardens, beautiful King’s garden, and flowing water. I hope that I will have the opportunity to go back someday.

Post Number 4

The week that we spent in Berlin was amazing. We met a very nice guy at a Turkish restaurant neat our hotel, saw the remains of the Berlin wall, practiced important medical skills, and learned about the history of Germany. It was nice to be able to compare large German cities such as Berlin to the smaller city life of Bonn. Out of all the activities and tours we did this week the most memorable to me was the visit to Sachsenhausen and Otto Bock.

The Holocaust was a huge black mark for the history of this country, and we were placed right in the middle of it. As soon as we arrived at the concentration camp, that attitude of the entire group shifted. We went from a cheerful crowd to a more mellow and reverent group. As the tour guide led us deeper and deeper into this place of horror, I began to truly grasp the magnitude of the era. She taught us about the experiments that were done on the inhabitants of the camp, the horrible decisions that the prisoners were forced to make, and the living conditions in which they were forced to stay. Our last stop of our tour was the gas chamber. This was the place where many Jews lost their lives. All of us walked through in silence. There was nothing that could be said. I cannot imagine how something this horrible was allowed to occur for so long.

The next day we travelled to Duderstadt to visit the Otto Bock Center. I had been looking forward to this trip all week, and it was everything that I could possibly hope for. We were greeted with a nice lunch in their lounge. Then we were allowed to go inside the manufacturing plant. We were showed how they make the specific liners made of silicone, polyethylene, or copolymer. Then we were taken to a room where flexible carbon is used to make prosthetic legs. After this we were shown how different parts were created using wood, stainless steel, titanium, or aluminum. It’s amazing to see how much precision goes into every piece contributing to the final product.

After we learned how things were made, we were shown how they were stored, sorted, and shipped. This was probably one of the coolest aspects of the company. Everything is ran by a computer system. Each object is placed into a blue container with a barcode on it. The information, such a product number and quantity, is inputted into the computer. Then the box is placed on a conveyer belt which automatically transports it to the warehouse for storage. When an object is needed for a shipment the computer will locate the box and move it to the workstation of the employee who is preparing the shipment. This system can move thousands boxes in and out of the warehouse in one hour. But wait! That’s not the coolest thing. Overnight the system runs a self analysis. It will calculate which objects are used most often and move then to the front of the shelves so that they can be accessed more efficiently.

Otto Bock was very welcoming to our group. The tour guides seemed to know a lot about the company and their newest designs, such as the ActiGait and the DynamicArm system for Targeted Muscle Reinnervation (TMR). It was the first time that this program was allowed to visit the facilities, and I hope that the program is invited again in the future.

Czech it out!!

This weekend we went to the Czech Republic for our free weekend. It was a lot of fun. At first I was a little nervous to go on this trip alone, but there were enough of us to help me feel more at ease.

We left at 6:30 in the morning on New Year’s Day. Most of us only got about an hour of sleep that night, so everyone slept for the 5 hour train ride. Once we arrived our first challenge was to find an ATM to get money, but how much would we need? I soon realized that I took out too much money. After the group navigated out way out of the train station, we split into two smaller groups. My group walked around the city while the others found their hostel.

The first thing I wanted to see was Prague Castle. This meant that we needed to find and cross the Voltava River without a map. This was the easy part. We somehow managed to walk down Golden Lane to Karl’s Bridge. We saw the castle on top of a hill while we were crossing the bridge, so we knew the general direction that we needed to go. We followed street signs down long curvy roads. The streets were very narrow and steep. We finally came to a long stair case that took almost 10 minutes to walk up. (That was our workout for the day). Once we got to the top we were pleasantly surprised with a wonderful view overlooking the entire city to our left and Prague castle to our right. We spent about 3 hours exploring the wonders of Prague castle, St. Vitus Cathedral, and Rosenberg Palace. After that we met up with other people from our group and made our way back to the other side of the river. Finally, we went to out hostel to put our bags away. My shoulders were really beginning to hurt. We went to eat at an Italian Restaurant then went to the Black Light Theater to see a play.

The next morning we woke up around 8:30 and went to New Prague to see the Dancing House. It is a house built to resemble Fred Astaire and Ginger. Then we stopped at a cute little coffee shop for a quick breakfast. It started snowing while we were inside!! It was beautiful. After breakfast we went to Jewish Prague. We spent about 2 hours in synagogues, the Jewish cemetery, and Holocaust exhibits. I round this really interesting. I learned a lot about the Jewish religion and the struggles that Czech Jew faced. After this we went to the Christmas market to grab a quick lunch and do some souvenir shopping. Then we picked up our bags and went to the train station to head back to Berlin.

I really enjoyed Prague. It is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. It was really special to me because that is where my family is from. It was nice for me to see where I came from. The city was very easy to navigate through. I loved the old cobblestone roads, the river, the view from the castle, and the old fashion building. I wish I had more time to explore, but I am glad that I at least had those two days.