What's Beyond?

Do you live in a bubble? Is it hard to look beyond your society, your people, and your community? How often do you step out and look beyond your existence?

Weekly Report 12/10/18 to 12/16/18

Sometimes we forget to look beyond what lies before our eyes, creating a significant social myopia. We tend to live in our own bubbles and forget that there is a much harsher and crueler world outside of the sheltered community we live in. Personally, I could not be more grateful for what I have, but at the same time it also confines my experience of life beyond sheltered surroundings. Through my mentorship experience, however, there have been many cases that show a life beyond the mere looking glass.

This past week was dedicated to another mentor visit. Dr. Braga had multiple patients that day and each one had a different story to tell. A case that really stood out was yet again another physical abuse case. Dr. Braga debriefed the case prior to us going in to see the patient. The child had been found unconscious in a coma as a result of apparent physical abuse. Allegedly, the mother confessed that the her boyfriend had physically abused her child leading to severe trauma. The patient then had to undergo a decompressive craniectomy to release the pressure built up in the brain as a result of the swelling caused by brain trauma. Fortunately, the patient recovered from the surgery and is now under the care of a foster mom and doing very well. However, not every story ends “happily ever after” which gives more of a reason to look beyond our bubbles. Children at such young ages require affection in addition to nutritional benefits in order to fully develop.

In addition, the past week was also dedicated to furthering my original work project by annotation research articles and compiling a flyer and brochure for the event. It is absolutely vital to begin putting the rest of the original work together as the deadline for original work approaches.