Namaste Hyderabad

Today was our last day in Hyderabad. Before we all left to go our separate ways, we had one last meeting scheduled at Care Hospital with Dr. Krishnamohan. We arrived at CARE at 10:00 and went to see Dr. Krishnamohan in the Cath Lab. Apparently, he had been working all night and there had been two temporary pacing procedures at night and another one early in the morning. He decided to walk us around to see the patients so we could observe how the temporary pacemaker was secured, how the patients were doing, and how their ECG signals looked.

Dr. Krishnamohan also brought us into the imaging room to look at the xrays and fluoro images of these patients. While we were in this room he also showed us some of the leads that the hospital is using and even allowed us to play around with one and see how it felt. This was a really education and helpful experience for us and we really appreciated Dr. Krishnamohan's help with us.

Dhananjay, Dr. Krishnamohan, Erin, and Shruthi at CARE Hospital

Before we left CARE for our last time, we made sure to take a picture and thank him over and over again for all the help he provided us on this trip and over the past few months. We are looking forward to continue our collaboration with him and are hoping to have the chance to come visit again with prototypes later in the spring.

After leaving the hospital we headed a few buildings down the street to Karachi bakery to pick up some Karachi biscuits (cookies), which are famous here in India, to take home to our families. We then made our way back to the Taj Banjara and past our favorite lake for the last time so we could pack our bags and head out. Dhananjay was heading to Mumbai and Erin and Shruthi were heading to Jaipur for the next few days. The car took Dhananjay to the airport while Erin and Shruthi went to visit her families place where they enjoyed a nice authentic home cooked, South Indian meal, and got Mehndi (henna done).

Mehndi on the front of Erin's hands

Mehndi comes in three different styles, Arabic, Indian, and Designer. Both Erin and Shruthi decided to get Indian, which was an intricate pattern completely covering both the front and back of their hands. Each person's Mehndi can take anywhere from 45 minuts to two hours depending on the level of detail and how much of the arm is done. Once the Mehndi has been put on, you are supposed to wait anywhere from 4 hours to 24 hours for it to dry before peeling or scraping it off. Apparently the longer the Mehndi sits on your skin, the darker the color gets. Unfortunately, Shruthi and Erin had to leave for the airport at 4:30 so they were not able to remove the Mehndi until they got to the airport. Luckily, at this point everything was dried, so it came off pretty easily and they were able to have two fully functional and extremely intricate hands.

Erin and Shruthi with their Mehndi and trying not to touch anything

Erin and Shruthi will now be sight-seeing tourists for the next few days with David, who will be meeting up with them in Jaipur. Dhananjay is going to be visiting friends in family in his hometown and Mumbai and will be heading back to America at the beginning of January for our Spring semester.

Until our next global health trip, Namaste and thanks for reading!