The First day of Medical training is underway!

The much anticipated 2011 Barefoot Drs medical training started today. These second year students started off by sharing a little about their experiences over the last year. This gives us a good idea of what we need to focus on and how much they retained from last year. It also provides a great real life learning opportunity for all the students to learn from each others experiences. We are only about ½ through the interviews but we already have some great stories.

Keep in mind this year is the second year of a three year program. The experiences they are sharing from this last year is after only their 1^st year of training and already they are saving lives!

One student came across an acute appendicitis and correctly told the patient they needed to go to the hospital. Thankfully this situation was near a hospital and the Doctor there told our Barefoot Dr student that had he waited one more hour the patient would probably have died.

Another life saving diagnosis by a Barefoot Dr student was when he was called in to look at a young girl who cut her thigh on a rusty nail. Her symptoms started with severe pain in the thigh but then spread to the entire body. Within a few days she was having severe spasms pulling her body into extension. Fortunately the Barefoot Dr recognized that there was nothing he could do and that the patient needed to go to the health clinic no matter how difficult that may be. The Doctor at the clinic successfully treated the Tetanus and saved the girl's life. The doctor told the Barefoot Dr that the girl would have died if he had waited to bring her in any longer.

The last story for the night is not of life and death but definitely unusual and relates to rehab, a subject close to my heart as a P.T. This Barefoot Dr student had a patient who’s leg was permanently damaged years before from a Tiger bite! Because of his leg injury this man walked with a crutch. Unfortunately this patient’s crutch had broken so our Barefoot Dr student made him a new one with the knowledge he learned in class last year.

It's very exciting and encouraging for us to hear that this first year class is already making a difference.

There was also a prize given out for the student who filled out the most patient contact forms. It is basically a brief record of patients they have seen over the year. Just like students around the world, getting them all to fill out the proper paper work can me a challenge. Well, the winner by a long shot was Ester Mai Mai with 101 logs’s completed. The next best was 55. So she won a very nice digital camera! This can also be used in her work and to send pictures of her work back to us.

I hope to have more interesting stories for you over the next few days.

Thank you all for your support.

Rick Astone