Day 13: Good People do bad things

This morning was CVT training! Even though I went to the wrong building at first... I still made it on time! My group went to the Clemson's (go Cocks) program at GHS off of pate wood. I remember going there during Tier I but it was nice to go back in a smaller group. We started off with a presentation given by three of the students who will be graduating after next year. They gave us an overview of the arteries and veins in the body as well as the mechanics of the heart. This was particularly interesting because right after that we were able to go and scan ourselves and see what we had just learned right next door. Whenever we do something like this Im always afraid I'll find out about some horrible, hidden disease but it turns out Im 'textbook' ok!

We started off by dividing into even smaller groups and rotating through three different rooms. The first room my group went into we were able to scan the veins and arteries running along our necks. After that the second room was our hearts, and the third our legs. One cool trick that the CVT students showed us was how to tell an artery and vein apart; if you apply pressure to the area and one of the tube/circles on the screen compresses completely its a vein, if not its an artery. With the machines we could also use different forms of scanning to see how the blood flowed through the particular vein/artery. With this, the CVT students could see if there was any plaque clogging the area. Its incredible how quickly the students could find what they were looking for on the screen while it took me about five minutes!

When my group returned to the main campus after lunch it was time to do some research for our Great Debate topic. After that Ms. McGinnis gave her second lecture on how to write our personal statements. It's a bit stressful to think about how much these statements are going to matter when applying to medical school and the amount of work that I'll have to put into it but it is reassuring to talk to the medical students about how they wrote theirs and hear Ms. McGinnis' tips.

That night we also had a seminar given by Dr. Richard Frierson, a Forensic psychiatrist (who also teaches neuropsychiatry and the medical school in Columbia) that Dr. Epright invited to speak to us. I definitely would like to learn more about psychiatry as field, particularly altering hearing Dr. Epright's cases as well as other speakers that we've had. This talk in particular was very informative. Dr. Firerson's talk covered two things: competency to stand trial and criminal responsibility (or the insanity defense). The sad thing about the rules that psychiatrists follow to determine these two things when diagnosing their patients is that they are precedents set by cases such as the Dusky vs Supreme Court (1960). It's terrible that these horrible crimes have to happen before the correct guidelines can be in place but sometimes change only happens when the wrong things are brought to light. As much as pain is relative to the person, knowing right from wrong is similar for the mentally handicap. They may be good people and not intentionally do harm on others but due to their conditions they are unable to control their actions and determine right from wrong and Im glad that there is a system that recognizes and provides for that.

#MedExTierII