Great experience at the Hospital for Sick Children

I studied abroad to The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto for 4 weeks this spring. I experienced many things there, so I’d like to talk about my experience.

First, I will talk about why I could go there. I was not interested in studying abroad before, because I couldn’t notice how important English is. But many doctors advised to study English now and I knew the fact many classmates could speak English. I was shocked that, so I started to study conversational English when I was in 4th grade. And then I decided to study abroad, and finally I could realize my dream. I could study at SickKids, which is one of the largest children’s hospital in the world in 6th grade.

When I arrived at Sick Kids, I felt so excited because the building of SickKids was so cute, and I was also surprised that SickKids was so big. I knew later that SickKids had not only clinic, ward, operation room, and laboratory, but also many shops. I studied in the clinical neurophysiology laboratory. In this laboratory, for surgical treatment of　intractable pediatric epilepsy, doctors evaluated whether the patient need surgery, and the range of resection for surgery by using MRI, EEG, MEG. There are many meeting for patients, and neurosurgeon, neurologist, and other co-medical join in that meeting. I could attend some conferences and observe surgery. It was difficult for me to understand what they told at first. However, I tried to listen so carefully. I was so surprised at their active discussion. When I observed epileptic surgery, I was also surprised that many people took part in a surgery and their work was more specialized compared to Japan.

By the way, I also helped the research of Dr.Sakuma, who came from our university and he studied the correlation between epilepsy and neuropathology, so I also studied it. It was the first time to participate in clinical research so I enjoyed it, and at the same time I knew researchers have a lot of things to do. I could learn about many new things in four weeks because Dr. Otsubo, the director of clinical neurophysiology, taught me how to research and make a presentation, and Dr. Halliday, professor of neuropathology, helped my research. They regarded me as one of member at SickKids, so I could study seriously as a member of SickKids.

In addition, I could observe Neurology clinic in the final week and found the difference of system between Canada and Japan. It was also interesting experience for me.

I worried about whether I could do my best before I went there, but when I said that, a doctor in my university said to me “you can enjoy it.” This word gave me courage, and actually, I enjoyed not only my practice at SickKids but also other things. I appreciate many pediatricians who supported me. This experience will be my treasure, and my dream is that I will study again at SickKids as a pediatrician in the future.