A pre-med student’s experience abroad

STORY BY MARLENA AV
photos by Annmarie Kent

As double doors swing open, pre-med student and volunteer Erin Aldag enters the maternal wing of a Spanish-speaking hospital. Before her lies a crowded room where mothers give birth with no privacy, surrounded by mold-covered walls.

In the summer of 2014, Aldag, a Western student, set off to volunteer for five weeks at Hospital Carrión in Huancayo, Peru, where she observed procedures a volunteer would not be able to witness in the United States.

Inspired by the Spanish influence in her hometown of Pueblo, Colorado, Aldag wanted to immerse herself in a developing country’s work environment and learn more Spanish in its natural setting.

In the United States, strict privacy laws protect patient identity and health information. Because similar laws don’t exist in Peru, Aldag was able to observe several operations, including an eight-finger amputation, a gallbladder removal and non-medicated births.

Unlike operating room protocol in Peru, the United States requires patient and surgeon consent in order to observe operations, says Rebecca Noel, a registered nurse in Whatcom County.

“When I was a nursing student at Skagit Valley Hospital, we had [operating room] rotations and I was able to observe a prostatectomy,” Noel says. “In most teaching hospitals, they allow students in [operating rooms] as long as the surgeon and the patients are OK with it.”

However, with the privilege of watching an operation, students must fill out paperwork before observing surgeries in the United States.

Unlike more traditional study abroad programs, Aldag wanted to experience something unique, hands-on and relevant to her pre-med ambitions.

Throughout each wing of Hospital Carrión, physical hallways are replaced with open-air paths crowded with patients, doctors and volunteers.

“Once one person in the room gets an infection, usually everyone else gets an infection,” Aldag says.

In addition to Aldag’s involvements in the hospital, she visited orphanages to teach children the importance of basic health care. The children were excited to help Aldag and the other volunteers improve their Spanish.

Aldag also traveled to a community called Orito Bajo, consisting of about 200 members who reside in mud huts. There, daily life entails harvesting from nearby orange trees — one of Orito Bajo’s prime economic resources.

While hiking with the village members, Aldag observed the village’s main water source — a small pipe trickling unfiltered water.

“It was the type of experience you kind of expect when you go to a developing country,” she says. “People live with less and have way better attitudes and outlooks on life than we do.”

Now in her junior year at Western, Aldag continues toward finishing her biochemistry major. She plans to apply to medical school next year.

Aldag’s time in Peru validated her desire to go forth with medicine, gave her an appreciation for the United States health care system and cultivated a newfound love for traveling.