Hyderabad Revisited

Although this trip is only about halway over, there are a few key differences I have noticed between this trip and the last one.

First, I have felt a lot more comfortable being in India on this trip. This may have to do with the fact we have been going to a lot of the same places and talking to a lot of the same people as last time, but India does not quite seem as intimidating. 

Second, the hot humid weather we had in August made us a lot more tired and exhausted during our hospital visits and inteviews. This time the weather has been awesome, temperatures between 60 and 80, very little humidity, and very little sweating. 

Third, my impression of Hyderabad has changed significantly. Last time we started in Hyderabad and then went to Kolkata. This time, we did the opposite. I think that my cultural shock from just being in India during our first trip did not allow me to fully recognize the stark differences between these two cities. Since this trip began in Kolkata, which I now realize is much more crowded, much dirtier, and much poorer, I have been able to clearly see why people told us to watch out in Kolkata. Hyderabad is still not the cleanest or most well off place in the world, but I am starting to see more similarities between it and cities in the US.

Now, for what we did on our first full day in Hyderabad. 

We woke up this morning and ate our breakfast at the delicious Taj Banjara buffet. We then braved our way across the street (see our post "Driving in India" from our last trip to understand what crossing the street here involves) to CARE Hospital for our meeting with Dr. Krishnamohan. Dr. Krishnamohan is a senior cardiologist who we met with during our previous visit in Hyderabad and who we have been consulting with as part of our teams graduate committe for the past few months. Him, along with Naresh, a biomedical engineer who helps coordinate CBID groups in Hyderabad, are helping to set up all our meetings and provide us with contacts here in India.

CARE Hospital, our homebase hospital in Hyderabad

During our meeting this morning, the team went over all of what we saw in Kolkata with Dr. Krishnamohan and we expressed what we are hoping to get out of the rest of our visit. It was interesting to hear his take on the things we had heard and seen in Kolkata, because Hyderabad seems to be doing things a lot differently than Kolkata. Dr. Krishnamohan also made some phone calls during our meeting to answer some other questions we had and get meetings set up for the rest of the week. Around 11:30, Dr. Krishnamohan had to go to a procedure, but had told us to go downstairs to the emergency room to talk to a few contacts there about temporary pacing. The emergency staff seemed to be pretty busy, but we were able to talk to a few people and get some insight into how the emergency department at CARE works with the cardiologists and cardiology department at the hospital. When we finished speaking with the emergency medical staff, Dhananjay, Erin, and Shruthi, headed back to the hotel. Dr. Krishnamohan and Naresh had agreed to have lunch with us when the procedure was finished and since we did not have any meetings planned in between, we decided to get some work done while we waited.

When the procedure was almost over, Naresh told us to head over to the restaurant, which happens to be next to the hospital, to meet him and Dr. Krishnamohan. Naresh and Dr. Krishnamohan were a little late because the procedure ran later than expected. Dr. Krishnamohan explained that the procedure, which was scheduled to begin at 12, was not able to actually start til 1 because the Cath Lab was backed up. Because he practiced in England for a long time, he told us that he understands how punctuality does not really exist in India, but that he wanted to do his best for us since he figured we would be.

Authentic Rajistani Thali that we ate for dinner

After lunch Naresh contacted a cardiac anesthesiologist who had agreed to meet with us. The anesthesiologist said that it would be best if we came after 5pm, so we once again headed back to the hotel until Naresh heard back and we were ready to go. Unfortunately, the doctor was unable to clear his schedule for the afternoon, so we instead scheduled the meeting for tomorrow. We all spent the rest of the evening relaxing and then enjoying an authentic Rajistani meal at a restaurant down the street.