Guatemala Day 3: Medical Mission at San Vincente Pacaya

Today was the first day of the second week for the MWU DOCARE Medical Mission in Guatemala. The buses loaded up with about 60 MWU students, alumni, physicians, and volunteers for the one hour drive to San Vincente Pacaya, a town located outside of Guatemala City and near the Pacaya volcano. The day was an experience I will never forget.

We arrived in the town at about 9:15 am and many hundreds of residents were already lined up in the courtyard of the school. The school was closed for the day so the local residents could come to the clinic for their annual medical care. The MWU Team quickly set up their clinic: triage centrally located with most of the Spanish-speaking students and volunteers; on one side was the pharmacy and dentisty, and on the other was optometry, followed by dermatology, general medicine, and the lab (running urinalysis, pregnancy tests, and glucose tests). Upstairs, somewhat ironically, was podiatry (most of the people with foot and lower extremity problems had a tough time getting upstairs, but they made it); women's health; more general medicine with radiology; and another dentistry room.

Photo: Children play while most of the town waits in the school courtyard for their turn to see the MWU doctors

Once the students and physicians had "set up" their rooms, the patients began to file in. The rest of us non-medical types served as "runners," taking the patients from triage to optometry to general medicine and usually ending up in pharmacy. The patients ranged from babies to quite a few men and women in their 90s. Clearly, these people were in dire need of health care. Despite their limps, missing teeth, poor hygiene, and bad eyesight, they were clearly "making by" and had wonderful spirits. Needless to say, most patients needed all of our services. The dentists were busy from beginning to end extracting teeth, mostly of children. The optometry clinic was near mayhem, but organized and lovingly-managed mayhem. The team consisted of MWU Clinic physician Dr. Don Jarnagin, assisted by John of the Lion's Club and Ray Nunez of the Glendale Rotary. To watch the look on people's face when they put on a pair of glasses and are able to see is truly priceless. The Lion's Club brought boxes and boxes of glasses, and this was the most popular station all day.

Photo: John (left) from the Lion's Club, Ray Nunez (center) from the Glendale Rotary, and Bill Kelleher (right) also of the Rotary help hand out eyeglasses to the local residents

Many patients needed general medicine. The physicians in the room were assisted by student interpreters and some very valuable nurses who worked hard to identify the varying conditions and diagnoses and quickly prepare a treatment plan. I spent most of my day taking patients from the general medicine room down to the pharmacy to get their medications, which ranged from blood pressure pills to aspirin or vitamins. Many older patients took me by the arm and walked right next to me down the hall to the pharmacy room. The look in their eyes was nearly indescribable. In many cases, they were quite old and quite ill, but they were finally getting some kind of treatment. Mothers often carried several children and were so happy to be getting the vitamins and basic medications they needed. Some patients presented with more severe illnesses, such as a man with an open sore on his foot or the woman with severely high blood pressure and another with a large cantaloupe-sized goiter on her neck.

Photo: Dr. Cole irrigates a patient's ear

Throughout the day, I was so impressed by the MWU students, who stepped up to fill any and every job--from interpreter to triage to primary care and even tooth extraction. They took histories, irrigated ear canals, checked visual acuity, and examined gaits. They were able to work closely with the faculty and attending physicians who were treating some very critically ill people with few resources and no pay. I was not only impressed; I was moved. My role was merely to walk people down the hall from one room to the next, but I felt like I accomplished more true human "good" in one day that I usually do in an entire week of 10-hour days.

During our brief lunch break, one of our CCOM alumni, Dr. Jim Young from South Dakota, provided a lecture to all the physicians and students on dermatology. Despite their long morning of seeing patients, all the docs sat around to learn more about the derm cases they would be seeing during the week. Lunch consisted mainly of power bars and granola bars, but we were all happy to take a few minutes to sit down and relax. When the afternoon clinic started, we soon had a line of people waiting outside the doors of the school. The optometry line snaked around the classroom twice, but the volunteers never got flustered or aggravated...they just kept treating their patients. Finally, at about 4:30 pm, our team leaders knew it was time to break down the clinic so we could make it safely back to Antigua before dark. We were able to treat about 700 patients in just about 6 hours. We were tired, dirty, but fulfilled by how much of a difference our efforts made on this day.

Photo: Dr. Young provides a presentation on dermatology to the MWU medical team during the lunch break

As long as I live, I will never forget this day. I feel so grateful to having the opportunity to participate in this unique experience in Guatemala. While it is too fresh in my mind to truly reflect on it, I know this day has changed my life forever. I also know that this day improved the lives of many residents of San Vincente Pacaya.

More when I get back to Phoenix.