See how much you know with this simple first aid quiz from the BBC. Enjoy

http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/treatments/first_aid/skills_test/

Medlink 2011- My Experience

This year I was lucky enough attend Medlink. For those who don’t know Medlink is a large conference/ experience for A level students considering a career in medicine.  Medlink is held at Nottingham University each year and lasts for four fantastic and exhilarating days where you get the chance to meet medical professionals as well as spending four days just like a medical student

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So What Did We do?

All the days basically were from 9:15ish to 10:15, which are long but the lectures are so interesting you will never get board. Each day consisted of about 10 lectures which covered a range of topics from medical school applications, surgery, A&E, pre-emergency care and so on. Most lectures were about 45minutes and they were jam packed with information from the professionals.

There was also 2 hours of patient, ophthalmoscope, otoscope and stethoscope skills. I felt this was good but we should have got more time on these clinical skills.

The Edge Session-a must have extra.

This session was run by James Ridgeway, and was absolutely saturated with incredible information which will no doubt be some of the most useful information I will ever hear, it was so good I wrote five and a half A4 pages of notes. I have also never felt so much enthusiasm and passion from one person about helping us get into medical school.  If there one thing that you shouldn’t miss it’s the edge session!

Since I didn’t get a chance to at the session could I please just say a huge thank you to James for inspiring me so much.

What I have gained from the experience

Medlink was a brilliant experience and I have learnt loads on different aspects of medicine, different routes on how to get into med school and most importantly it has helped make the decision to go for medicine 100%.

So on that note, all I can say is a massive thank you to the Medlink Team.

Noah

Two heads, 1 body...What do they do?

Today I read a very interesting article about twins who were basically born with the same body. Their condition is called dicephalic parapagus and is very rare although there are other known cases of the condition. There condition meant they were born in Brazil with two heads, two brains and two backbones but with only one heart.

Obviously this is stirs up a few problems for the doctors and surgeons looking after the twins.

Firstly and foremost, the main problems is whether to spate the twins or to keep them conjoined.

This in its self stirs up a number of problems.  One problem is the findings out how separation would even be possible I.e. are their main blood vessels separate systems or are they joined. This would require the world’s best vascular surgeons to separate their main vessels if they were joined.

Another problem is whether separating the twins is ethical. On one hand if they are separated they would both be able to live their own individual lives, however if something went wrong during separation one twin may end up with serious disabilities or even may die, or they may both dies.

This then brings up the classic question in pioneering science and medicine, ‘does the benefits outweigh the risk?’  

Currently the twins are reported to be breast feeding normally, so hopefully the future is looking good for the twins.

The mother of the twins was reported to not of had an ultra scan which meant that the condition was not picked up, until a few minutes before birth.  However I feel that even if she did have the ultra scan it may have been late anyway to do anything other than terminate the pregnancy.

I felt that this article is very interesting and you can read it here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16300314  . I will certainly be following up on what happens with these twins in the next few months.

Hope you enjoyed reading this,

Noah.

Hello World...

Hello,
 My name is Noah and I am hoping to become a doctor. This blog is basically going to be the journey I take to get into medical school and what things I will do to hopefully increase my chances of getting into my chosen med school. I have always loved science and you will also find everything I find, interesting. I hope you will find it interesting to.
So what I am doing?
I am currently studying for my AS levels in Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Maths. I have my first 3 AS level exams in January 2012. Which with a bit of luck and hard revision I hope to achieve 3 straight A’s.
I hope you find this blog interesting as well as useful.
Thanks,
Noah