Hum Kolkata aa gaye...again

Outside the airport in Kolkata

After about 28 hours of traveling we arrived at our guest house in Kolkata at about 9pm on Thursday. The owner of the guest house, Rupa, greeted us and told us she had an authentic Indian dinner waiting for us. We all quickly showered and changed and sat down to enjoy our delicious home cooked meal. After a long day (or two if you count the time difference) of travelling we were all happy to have a meal in front of us and a bed to lie down in.

Day 1

Outside of SSKM

Our first day in Kolkata was set to start at 10:15. After a delicious breakfast prepared by Rupa, we were on our way to SSKM. During our trip in August we also visited SSKM and learned a lot about permanent pacemakers in West Bengal. This time we had a slightly different agenda and headed to the hospital to meet with the head of the Cardiology department, Dr. Dutta. Unfortunately when we arrived at SSKM Dr. Dutta was in a meeting and was not expected to be ready for an hour. While we were waiting he suggested we go meet with Dr. Soumik, another doctor that we had spoke with last time, and make some plans for the rest of our visit. Dr. Soumik was very busy, but was able to point us in the direction of some patients we could talk to.

Cardiology ward in SSKM

We spent the next hour going bed to bed in the cardiac ward talking to patients and understanding how they got to the hospital, how they were feeling, and what happened during their procedures. Since we were on our own this time, communicating with the patients was a bit more difficult. SSKM is a government hospital and most of the patients who go there are not as well educated as some of the private facilities. This means that most of the patients only speak the language of West Bengal, which is Bengali. Since all of us don't know Bengali, we were forced to find other people to help us communicate. This proved to be pretty easy since the three of us walking through the male cardiac ward with bookbags and notebooks seemed to draw attention and interest from everyone in the room.

Patient with temporary pacing tied to the hospital bed

While Erin stood around the patients bed pretending to understand what was being said, Shruthi and Dhananjay asked questions in Hindi to family members and other people standing by. These people then translated the question to Bengali for the patient. While this may not have been the most efficient system, it allowed us get some valuable information and insight into these patients treatment and conditions.

After talking to patients we headed to our meeting with Dr. Dutta and spoke with him about his opinions on the temporary pacemaker space. Despite the numerous interruptions from people and phone calls, a common occurence during meetings here in India, we wrapped up our conversations and were on our way to Medica for our next meeting with Dr. Banerjee.

We arrived at Medica, made a quick pitstop for caffeine, and then headed over to Dr. Banerjee's office where we were told to take a seat and wait. After about an hour and a half of waiting, his assistant told us he was going to be another hour or two, so we decided to head back and reschedule our meeting. 

When we got back to the guest house the jet-lag set in and we all ended up taking naps. When we woke up, David and Linda were back from their day and we all went to Tolley Club (the club we stayed at during our last trip) for dinner with Dr. Saha, our host in Kolkata, and his wife. Following a delicious meal and interesting conversation, we headed back to the guest house and off to sleep.