A Summer to Remember: Volunteering at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center

In the spring of 2022, my father told me about a five-week Red Cross volunteer program at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC) exclusively for teenagers. I was 15 at the time. The window for applications for this program was closing soon, so I had to make a decision quickly. At first, it didn't sound all that interesting. My first thought was "Working in a hospital for five weeks sounds pretty boring." I was about to tell my father I wasn't interested, when a thought crossed my mind: "Just give it a shot. It's only five weeks. You don't know what you might discover." At the last second, I decided to apply, and a few weeks later, I received my acceptance letter to the program. I was ready for a new adventure. 

Fast-forward to mid-July of 2022. My shift assignments were the physical therapy clinic on Tuesdays, and the oral surgery clinic on Thursdays. In addition to my shifts, I had tours of various parts of the hospital scheduled on Wednesdays. Little did I know that the next five weeks would be a wild ride, in the best way possible. It would also give me an exciting introduction to the vibrant, robust world of military medicine. 

When I first arrived at the physical therapy clinic, I was immediately greeted by Truman, the treat-obsessed chocolate Labrador who walks around the clinic and puts smiles on patients' faces. My job in that clinic was pretty straightforward: wipe off surfaces after people touch them. I often found myself wiping the same thing multiple times in the same 5-minute timespan, but I didn't mind. The only thing I really had to watch out for was Truman, who always seemed to think I secretly had treats on me (I didn't), so he would follow me around for several minutes on end. My other shift, which was at the oral surgery clinic, was a bit different. Rather than cleaning surfaces, I took and logged patients' vitals (under supervision, of course). The staff in both departments were all really nice to the volunteers. I enjoyed being able to learn hands-on what goes on in a hospital.

Now, for the fun part that you've been waiting to read: the hospital tours on Wednesdays were where things got really interesting. 

One of the first tours was a simulated surgery on a dummy. My 3-4 friends and I had to remove an inflamed spleen (yes, the dummy had fake organs and blood). The problem was, we didn't know where the spleen was, or what it looked like, so we desperately started looking for something that looked infected or inflamed. After about 15 minutes of unsuccessful searching, I decided to ditch the surgical tools, and I reached my gloved hand in to feel around for the mysterious spleen. No luck. My friends and I finally had to call the tour guide in to tell us where the spleen was. 

Another tour was in the physical therapy bay. This area was in a different place than the clinic, so I was unfamiliar with it. At Walter Reed, there is a treadmill with screens all around it (like virtual reality almost, but without the VR goggles), where people are harnessed in and it simulates them walking on a path or on hills. I volunteered myself to go in and try it out. My task was to walk along a simulated path, and punch the onscreen birds out of the air as they flew at me. I didn't like the thought of hitting birds, but it was fascinating to see the creative/innovative ways Walter Reed is using to heal patients. 

The final tour was of the anatomy lab at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS). It's located on the same campus If you are squeamish, please skip this paragraph; it's about to get graphic. Yes, I had to look at cadavers (some people do donate their bodies to science). Yes, I saw organs in preservative jars. I also got to hold a real, full human brain. In case you are wondering what it felt like, it was soggy, wet, and a little mushy. The texture wasn't as bad as it looks. I'm not squeamish, in fact, I was actually pretty unbothered; I have a pretty high tolerance for this sort of stuff. I also had to assemble a skeleton from real bones with my friends. That was going fine until we had to assemble the legs; we only had foot bones and thigh bones, but no kneecaps or shins. We struggled a lot at the end because we found out we were also missing many other bones, and at the end, our skeleton looked pretty silly. It had half a head (the top part of the skull was missing), one arm, a detached hand, one shoulder blade, 3/4 of a ribcage, and really short legs with no knees. My friends and I could really do nothing but stand there, and laugh at our disaster of a human skeleton. 

I could tell you so much more, but this article would be way too long to be of any interest. The lesson here is, take every opportunity that is handed to you. You never know what you might discover.