Thank you to the medical staff that gave me an excellent tour of the McMurdo Medical Center.
The medical center is very important, anyone that gets hurt or just is not feeling well is allowed to go.
This is the emergency room, very similar to an emergency room that you may find at your local hospital.
There is a place to take X-Rays and an ultrasound machine.
If someone needs to stay overnight as an in-patient they would stay in these beds. There is even a Television.
The center can run basic blood. urine, and other lab tests. For example, if someone may have strep throat.
The doctors can also prescribe medications. They are stored in a small closet.
There is also a dentist's office. A dentist comes for six weeks in January for light dentistry, cleanings, fix a crown, or an easy filling. If someone needs more serious dental work they have to fly to Christchurch, NZ.
There is a physical therapy office for residents that may have a small injury.
Some patients may need to be transported back to Christchurch, NZ. It may be something like a broken arm from a slip, trip or fall, maybe the need for a root canal, or it can be much more serious. Unfortunately, if someone is suffering a serious injury they will need to wait for a C-17 plane to arrive and then fly back. McMurdo Medical center must work to keep the patient stable as possible and may ride on the plane with the patient back to Christchurch. They have lots of gear to help them keep the patient stable during the flight.
One other really cool piece of equipment that the McMurdo Medical Center has is a hyperbaric chamber. Some research teams have dive teams that scuba dive under the ice. If a diver surfaces too quickly then the pressure of their environment decreases too quickly and nitrogen starts to come out of their body tissues and it starts forming bubbles in tissues and in the bloodstream, rather than them breathing it out. This is really dangerous and can cause death. The chamber works by the patient being placed in an environment that is 100% oxygen, rather than our normal environment which is about 20% Oxygen. Cells can repair themselves better in this type of environment. Hopefully, the decompression chamber will never need to be used.
The McMurdo Medical Center is well equipped and the entire staff is very kind. Even the local penguin gives patients Get Well Soon wishes.
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