Media:

Note: Because of the restrictions of the hospital, these photos were the most that we could make of them. 

 

The entrance we went into the BC Children’s Hospital

A hospital directory of the old building

One of the hallways of the hospital

The sign where the women’s hospital connects with the

Children’s hospital.

A wall with different patients names on each tile

Hospital directions

The map of the hospital

Lobby of new building

The entrance we came out of

 

 

Interview: 

         The name of my host is Thomas Ha. He is a family friend of my friend and he works at the BC Children’s Hospital as a Pediatric Neurologist. He specializes in children that suffer from brain tumors, epilepsy and other symptoms. The number of patients he has in a week varies from 10 patients up to 50. His qualifications in order to get this job are attending university, get a bachelors degree, get into medical school, and a residency program that takes 5 years, Mr. Ha says he’s only on the second year of the program. His experience was medical school and volunteering at hospitals. His personal attributes include being very kind, helpful, curious, and eagerness to help out kids. In fact, Mr. Ha claims that his favorite part of the job is helping sick kids, and to help them live a healthy rest of their lives. We asked him what the rarest case he’s ever had was. He said he once had a patient come in with “locked-in syndrome”. This diagnosis is very rare, and it is where you cannot move any part of your body except blink your eyes and maybe move your thumb. Another quality he likes about the job is the community because they are more pleasant to be around. The things he disliked about having this job are the long hours that he has to work, and having to tell the patient’s parents that there is no damage to the child’s brain. In his opinion, if the patient comes in with an issue of the brain, and when the papers come out after they scan it saying there is no problem, that is the hardest part to tell parents. Mr. Ha graduated from medical school in Korea, meaning it was hard having to find a job with a language barrier. He says the hardest part of getting the job was the interviews of which he had to talk for 10 minutes about one topic. In the next 5 years, Mr. Ha anticipates that he would be continuing to be doing what he has been being, and perhaps come up with some new cures to help the children.  

 

 

Reflection:

One of the reasons I would like to be a pediatric neurologist is to also help kids that need help with the brain. The brain is such an important part of the body and it would feel so cool knowing that you just made a person’s life so much better. Another reason I would want to become a pediatric neurologist is learning about the brain and how it functions. The last reason why I would like the job is obviously the money made from it. A reason I would work at BC Children’s Hospital is because of the fancy new building that has a Starbucks in it. On the other note, one of the reasons why I wouldn’t want to become a pediatric neurologist is because of the pressure of human life. The brain is really cool and all but if accidents happen, it would be all my fault that I ruined someone’s life. This ties into my other reason which is I am not the most responsible person. I often make small mistakes and those “small mistakes” cannot be tolerated when I am working with someone else’s brain. The last reason why this job isn’t for me is because of the long work hours. If I am working for that long I would probably get tired easily, and being tired doesn’t allow me to focus, and not focusing and lead to slip-ups. In conclusion, being a pediatric neurologist is not really the most ideal job for me. 

This TOKTW experience taught me a lot of things, and even though being a pediatric neurologist isn’t up my ally, going helping people is. For post-secondary my plan is to go to dental school and become a dentist. If all goes well I will go back to school and major in orthodontics and become an orthodontist. Mr. Ha even gave me some tips on volunteering before getting a job so they know you have experience. I value this experience and I hope my post-secondary plan works out for me in the future.