Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Taiwan! 2/7

I'm here sitting in my room looking out over the "canal" or "river" or whatever you decide to call it (depending on how OCD you are...).  It's a sunny and warm day here in Taipei.  The weather has been incredible.  People here  have been wearing layers because sixty degrees is winter weather to them.  I've been breaking out dresses.  I feel like I should be at the beach.

We've been here for over a week now.  What can I even say about this experience?  Nothing can really fully describe what we've experienced.  I'll give you some highlights..  The Taiwanese people put Americans to shame with their hospitality.  I've been invited on rounds with doctors and the top cardiac surgeon in the country explained what he was doing as he performed surgery.  It was actually really funny...  Jess and I had been in the operating room watching the staff prepare the patient for the bypass surgery.  Everyone was very friendly and allowed us to stand at the head and look down at the patient's chest as they cut through his sternum. We left for lunch and came back around the time that the main surgeon was supposed to come.  He walked into the operating room and immediately started talking to us.  Everyone in the room stood up straighter when he walked in and here he was...  This super important person taking time to teach us. They actually asked med students to move so we could have a better view.  Uhhh...

More to come when I have some time to sit down and put some thoughts together. :)

2 comments:

Unknown said...

What an amazing experience, glad you're having fun.

Allie Beth said...

Justin got to watch Dr. Dennis Nichols perform a heart surgery. He said that when they got to the sternum-cutting part, Dennis looked up at Justin and said, "This is my favorite part!"