Unlike most teenagers, Eliza Mytas celebrated her 16th birthday about a third of the way around the world – or 8,300 miles – from friends and family after arriving on a different continent.
On Aug. 1, the Cashton High School junior flew from Chicago O’Hare, to John F. Kennedy, to Jomo Kenyatta in Nairobi, and finally to Mombasa, Kenya where she would then spend the next month engulfed in the African healthcare system as a medical intern.
Mytas, a member of CHS’s HOSA – Future Health Professionals club, said she learned about the opportunity with International Medical Aid in a newsletter and submitted an application and was accepted for a 4-week long internship.
Mytas rotated through four different departments during her month-long stint. She spent her first week in the emergency room where she witnessed the treatment of a variety of ailments, from people hit in traffic to those on the receiving end of a gunshot or machete attack.
“I learned so much stuff that you wouldn’t get to see here,” said Mytas.
While Mytas wasn’t able to actually assist in any procedures, even during a nurses’ strike, she was able to stand beside doctors and surgeons – at one point providing light from her cellphone to brighten the operating field – as they performed procedures on real people, who were in real pain. Anesthesia was rarely used, and in its place were heavy doses of pain-relieving medication. Mytas said there was a lot of screaming.
But in one department that Mytas rotated to, screaming was not allowed.
“In maternity, they are not compassionate,” said Mytas. “The nurses will be slapping the moms and telling them, ‘you are not strong enough for your baby.’”
It was in the pediatric ward where Mytas says she learned that community is so important to healthcare. She witnessed mothers helping out each other, tending to one another’s children whenever someone needed a break from the stress. Mytas helped out when she could. Even though all she was doing was being present and allowing a mother to breathe, “I felt like I truly was making a difference,” said Mytas.
Needless to say, the culture and infrastructure in East Africa was much different than what Mytas was used to back in the states. She said many buildings, including the hospital, were well-worn and falling apart. There was no air-conditioning in the facility except the operating rooms. Cleanliness and sterilization was also not a priority.
“There’s hardly any similarities [to American hospitals],” said Mytas.
She didn’t know what to expect when she was filling out the application to go to Africa, but says the experience was so eye-opening, her life is now split into ‘Before Kenya’ and ‘After Kenya’.
“And I wouldn’t want it any other way,” said Mytas.
Before Kenya, Mytas says she knew that after high school she wanted to pursue some sort a future in healthcare. Mytas also wasn’t sure if she’d be able to handle the blood and intensity of working in the medical field.
After Kenya, she is now certain of which path she will tread.
“I really want to do surgery,” said Mytas. “That was my favorite. [I thought] ‘I feel like I need to do this.’”
Mytas says that her time at Coast General Hospital helped solidify her future goals. She says that she would have never received such up-close experience anywhere else.
“I loved that I learned so much,” said Mytas.
