There's a saying in Dari, my liver is bleeding.
(speaks Dari).
So they're not literally saying their liver is bleeding, they're saying
I am experiencing extreme grief.
And having that cultural context was really powerful
and I like to think helpful
to the medical teams.
In the fall of 2021,
I was completing my internal medicine wards rotation,
then we found out kind of everything that was happening in Afghanistan
and specifically the Kabul airport bombing.
At that time, they didn't have any in-person translators.
And that can make medicine very difficult, as you can imagine,
both frustrating for these patients who were going through a lot
as well as the medical teams and their ability to provide medical care.
It's hard to do a physical exam
on a patient who doesn't understand what you're saying.
I got to help translate for tons of patients.
I think the patients felt more connected.
They felt like they had someone on the medical team who could hear their words,
could ask more personal questions and understand that
when they said certain things that there was more behind that.
I felt extremely fulfilled during that time.
I was very busy. I was working crazy hours.
I was doing everything a medical student does on an internal medicine rotation,
but I was doing it in Dari.
There were times when it was very sad.
Obviously, you're dealing with a lot of patients
who'd just undergone extreme trauma.
I also got to work with American Marines who had been injured in the blast,
so that was also very fulfilling.
It was awesome.
It was great.
I think my biggest takeaway from that experience was just
how amazing military medicine is.
I know that's, you know, really cheesy.
I don't think that my skills
would have been utilized in the same way if I were at a civilian medical school.
So it really reinforced my resolve to serve as a military physician.