7/27 - Chiranjeev Clinic (Day 1)

After another round of morning yoga we had our first day at Chiranjeev Clinic, run by Dr. Godbole & his wife. We will be returning to this clinic after our rural rotations. Besides specializing in pediatrics the private clinic also hosts a developmental department for milestone checking (I will get into that in a future post). 

Chiranjeev Clinic.

Dr. Godbole.

Some general observations on the clinic:

• As with previous pediatric clinics, there is a lot of vaccinations, routine checkups and crying children.
• The clinic is extremely small, even more so than Dr. Kothari's private clinic. 
• Upstairs lies the developmental testing area, filled with various toys and tools used for making sure a child is learning certain cognitive and motor functions within normal time frames. 
• Dr. Godbole's stethoscope is absolutely terrifying. He also loves the color pink. 

A big hit with the children I'm sure.

During lunch we had an interesting conversation with Dr. Godbole on a topic not really covered in past hospital visits. As mentioned in a previous post, India is a country steeped in religion and tradition. At the same time, the infrastructure is rapidly evolving in response to the changing times (in this regard, most of my observations point out how the medical field in India has modernized). To Dr. Godbole this adherence to tradition can pose as an issue, especially when it comes to increasing health risks. Two examples are given by him below:

1. In some rural villages on the outskirts of Pune, Dr. Godbole has encountered situations in which pregnant women deny c-sections as a method of delivery. Despite heavy risks to both the mother and child if the baby were to be delivered vaginally, the families would argue that such methods are unnatural and thus impure.

2. The Numero Uno & big daddy of all pathological issues that India faces in the health sector is two words: waterborne diseases (this will be covered in further depth next post with Dr. Dabak). The many highways in which said diseases can spread are multiplied the more concentrated the population becomes. The example used by Dr. Godbole was the upcoming Ganesh Chaturthi (September 17th), a celebration Pune is famous for celebrating, as we like to put it, all out. During the festivities, thousands of miniatures of the titular god would be immersed in large bodies of water. As one can imagine, this easily leads to heightened infection rates.

Tomorrow: Rural rotation!