EM Conference

I spent the weekend in Chennai at India's 9th annual International Emergency Medicine Conference. I was originally planning to spend the weekend in Pushkar, Rajastan for the camel fair, but decided at the last minute to ask Cornell's medical student executive committee (MSEC) to fund me for the conference (why turn down a free trip?), and when they agreed i booked my ticket. Sitting here at the computer - yet another first aid training session under my belt - i'm absolutely elated. I went expecting a few interesting lectures and maybe some networking - i got that, and so, so much more!

Arriving at Chennai's reasonably modern airport on Thursday afternoon, I expertly avoided the scammers and touts outside and made my way to Sri Ramachandra Medical College in a pre-paid taxi (this is the only way to go to avoid being cheated, but even then you always have to ask to see their official price list. *Everyone* here tries to extract extra cash from you, and a uniform usually only means they're better at it). Sri Ramachandra is located on the outskirts of Chennai in a rather desolate area of the city, but the campus itself is clean and beautiful with paved roads, a leafy garden, and a surprisingly elaborate temple. My accommodations were right on campus, in the student Annex, which, for 150 RS per night, was a pretty good deal. (But, *was* is a key word here... more on that later...). I had dinner with Ashita (who's in Chennai for the year working on some research projects) Thursday night; it was really nice to be able to hang out with someone from home, even if it was only briefly.

Friday morning was hectic, but once I managed to actually find the auditorium where the conference was being held (it's a huge campus), I immediately met some pretty cool people. First off, I met Mike, an emergency medicine resident at Stanford who looked as lost as I was. We hit it off right away, and ended up hanging out the rest of the weekend. He's doing a one month elective in Hyderabad, teaching emergency medicine principles to paramedics, and for the most part has unfortunately been too busy to see much more of India than the medical school. On Saturday night we took a rickshaw to a banquet sponsored by the conference at a ritzy hotel (in my infinite wisdom, i didn't pack anything even slightly dressy and had to go in jeans and flip flops... but, at least i washed my hair, right? :). Mike kept trying to take photos of families precariously perched on motorcycles and street-side vendors cooking puris over leaping flames... i smiled, remembering exactly how shocking everything here feels at first, and also feeling pretty amazed how easy it is to adapt to pretty much any surroundings. Oh, and yes, the dinner was a lot of fun - Indians have a rather, um, unique style of dancing where all the men dance only with each other (and they really get down!) while women sit around looking bored and a little too proper, vaguely mimicking the atmosphere of an underground gay disco (or what i think one would feel like... i mean, i've never been... absolutely not...).

The conference itself was a huge success for me. From the beginning, i met several attendings and even program directors from LIJ and NYU, all of whom were really interested in my work. I had brought along several first aid training manuals precisely for this purpose, and actually seeing what I had designed really impressed them. I also met up with Dr. Carter and Dr. Balsari (Cornell's residency program director and senior resident), as well as a few other residents and attendings from Cornell, who greeted me with "Zina! How nice to see you! We were just talking about your project and what a wonderful job you're doing!". Considering that I was vaguely concerned whether they would even remember my name, this turn of events was fantastic. In between lectures, I chatted with them about abstract submissions, conferences, and writing up my work into a paper; they were really supportive and provided many useful suggestions. So, I'm pretty thrilled, and have definitely returned to Palghar if a new burst of energy and even greater incentive to keep going with my work and not get too homesick!

The only, shall we say, adverse event that occurred while I was in Chennai happened on Saturday afternoon while I was in my room. I had left the window open because it was so hot, and was standing (barefoot) at a nearby table, unfolding my clothes. Suddenly, a giant - GIANT! - hairy rat, black and about the size of a large cat - leaped through the window, landing at most 1 or 2 inches away from my foot. Now, I love animals, and I even love all kinds of rodents, but this... thing... was a monster! I immediately started screaming and running around the room, looking for something to smack it away with. The rat kept running around the table, and at one point actually leaped up onto it and tried grabbing one of my shirts!! After a few minutes it managed to leap back out the window, leaving dirty little paw prints all over the nicest shirt I brought with me (contributing to my way too casual outfit at the dinner). Oh well... from that point on, heat be damned, i kept my window closed :).

That's it for now... I'm back in Palghar now, back to work, but am looking forward to the weekend! I'm going to meet Mike in Mumbai and show him around... how funny is that, ME, an Indian tour guide? Now I just have to decide whether a brief trip on a train would be a worthwhile tourist detour.... :).


Entrance to the emergency department, and an ambulance backing up outside.


Sri Ramachandra's campus. Surprisingly, it was really clean... and green :). (But, yeah, the food was still pretty bad... sigh...)


Poster advertising the conference. Very... orange :).


From the left, Dr. Sperling, myself, Dr. Balsari, and Dr. Carter.


One of many simulation exhibits set up for the conference - it was really cool, but at the same time a little bit strange... many of the "exciting new technologies" presented were certainly new in India, but fairly well established in the US... but, i guess that just fits the general pattern of how things work here.