This picture was taken by me during my field work in the Tumor Bank of Instituto Nacional de Cancerología, INcan.
Maria Amelia Rodriguez, "Success story", contributed by Maria Amelia Rodriguez, STS Infrastructures, Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography, last modified 12 August 2019, accessed 20 April 2024. https://stsinfrastructures.org/content/success-story
Critical Commentary
The work carried out by the tumor bank is crucial for accomplishing the promise made by the Incan’s director and displayed on posters throughout the building: “El cancer, hoy un reto, mañana una historia de éxito” (Cancer, today a challenge, tomorrow a success story).
The tumor bank, which stores almost 5000 samples taken from cancer patients, is located on the third floor of the new hospitalization tower. Two white, clean and neat rooms contain several refrigerators, a thermocycler, a nitrogen tank and a perfectly clean fume hood. A constant noise from the air ventilation system and the refrigerators seem to isolate the place and the staff from the noisy street, where recordings of evangelical pastors blaring out salvation messages mix with the suggestive calls from taco sellers inviting the people to sit and taste their products.
Going down from the third floor to the ground floor, people in white coats get lost among people without coats. In the central hall to the left there are two waiting rooms, one for emergencies and the other for people waiting to see their sick relatives. In the morning, this room is usually filled by sitting people who look extremely tired, some of them lying down and others dozing; they probably spend the night sitting and covered with blankets due to the cold temperatures.
The tumor bank, which stores almost 5000 samples taken from cancer patients, is located on the third floor of the new hospitalization tower. Two white, clean and neat rooms contain several refrigerators, a thermocycler, a nitrogen tank and a perfectly clean fume hood. A constant noise from the air ventilation system and the refrigerators seem to isolate the place and the staff from the noisy street, where recordings of evangelical pastors blaring out salvation messages mix with the suggestive calls from taco sellers inviting the people to sit and taste their products.
Going down from the third floor to the ground floor, people in white coats get lost among people without coats. In the central hall to the left there are two waiting rooms, one for emergencies and the other for people waiting to see their sick relatives. In the morning, this room is usually filled by sitting people who look extremely tired, some of them lying down and others dozing; they probably spend the night sitting and covered with blankets due to the cold temperatures.