  We had our first day in the Chiangklang clinic today. Most of the patients were very similar to what one would see working in the US. The most common problem seems to be gastritis, perhaps related to the very spicy diet. We also saw lots of back pain, headaches, and respiratory illnesses. We did see a couple unusual things. One twenty-year-old man was brought in ten days after a motorcycle accident. He had been seen in a local Thai hospital and sent home a few days later since his vital signs were stable however he remained partially blind in one eye, was unable to stand because of ataxia, and had trouble urinating.
All this points to increased intracranial pressure likely due to a subdural hematoma. However, the Thai hospital does not have a CT scanner and he would have had to been sent to Bankok the day of the accident to be imaged and have the blood drained out of his skull. That would have required alot of money that he didn't have. In the US he would have had surgery immediately after the accident and would likely be walking around today but the best we were able to do for him was set him up with physical therapy.
We were able to pray with him and answer his questions about what sort of recovery to expect. I also got to do a thoracentesis (sp? ) on a guy who had pheumonia and whose entire left lung was full of fluid. We pulled off almost a liter of fluid before it solidified and he permanently lost use of that lung. Got to get back to my Thai study! 
