Kavya Atluriさん

My name is Kavya Atluri, I am a rising 2nd year medical student at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School located in New Jersey, USA. I arrived in Japan on June 20th along with one other student from my class. We coordinated flights together which made the travel process much smoother and more fun. We were met by Madoka at the bus terminal to kindly guide us to the Hyogo Guest House. We are so grateful for her during our initial process of organizing and planning! She gave us a short briefing on the house as well as our upcoming rotations of 2 weeks observing Upper GI Surgery and 2 weeks observing Plastic Surgery.

I started that Monday in Upper GI Surgery and was greeted by an amazing team. I mostly worked with Dr. Hojo, Professor Shinohara, Dr. Kohno and Dr. Murakami who were the absolute best teachers and truly watched out for my wellbeing and education during my time with them. I observed a plethora of surgeries including removal of GISTs, esophagectomies, diverticulectomy for a Killian-Jamieson Diverticulum, and proximal/distal gastrectomy with Roux-en-Y and Billroth II reconstruction. I learned how healthcare is different in Japan. For example, the type of esophageal cancer common in America is adenocarcinoma due to the higher rates of GERD and obesity. However, in Japan most patients were seen with squamous cell carcinoma. I learned a great deal about the anatomy of the abdomen and was able to review the blood supply in detail with Dr. Hojo and Professor Shinohara. While I was on this rotation, I felt as though I made long lasting connections with the doctors as well as the other medical students on their 5th year rotations. I was blessed to have a medical student draw me a goodbye card with illustrations of our time in surgery and some of the procedures we saw! Additionally, Professor Shinohara was incredibly kind and thoughtfully gave me a copy of the textbook he wrote in English so that I could learn. It was an amazing experience and I now have incredible tokens to keep forever!

The following two weeks I rotated in Plastic Surgery and met an equally incredible team! I had the pleasure of working with Dr. Nishimoto, Dr. Ishise, Dr. Kakibuchi, Dr. Nakajima and Dr. Kawai. I observed small procedures within the outpatient clinic and more intensive procedures in the OR. Some of the smaller procedures I observed included blepharoplasty for ptosis, checking of skin grafts/wound dressing, and many others! Some of the procedures I observed within the OR was breast implant removal and an above knee amputation. Along with observing, I was able to participate in 2 suture training workshops where I was taught 3 different kinds of sutures and when to utilize each one. This was an amazing hands-on experience! During my last week in Japan, the Plastic Surgery department was kind enough to invite me to dinner! I loved bonding with everyone in the department and the food was incredible!

The students at Hyogo Medical University were always greeting me with open arms and I had lunch with them most days. They made me feel right at home! My experience at Hyogo Medical University was a once in a lifetime gift that I am so grateful to have enjoyed. I will carry the memories and tokens I gained forever.