This week was amazingly productive, and the Global Healing team has been working amazingly well together. The week started out on a sad note as we found out on Monday that the baby we had flown to San Pedro last week had died sometime over the weekend. The news came as a shock to all of us, since as of Friday we had been told that the baby had been placed on a ventilator in the NICU and was stable. We did not get any other information from the hospital in San Pedro, only that the baby had died. It was really dishearteartening, not only because we had worked so hard to help the baby, but because we all believed that this baby was through the toughest part. However, we all knew that we did all that we could have possibly done to make a difference for this baby.
On Monday, the hospital was on strike again, so we played the part of pediatric ER, taking all of the kids who were coming into the ER to be seen. It was pretty much the same as a normal clinic day, except that overall the kids were a little bit sicker. We took advantage of ending early on Monday to go through all of our supplies, inventory, clean, and make lists of needed supplies for the next people coming down. On Tuesday, things were back to normal. Wednesday was a crazy busy day. We had clinic as usual in the morning, and afterward, we had a lecture given by Dr. Dominguez, the orthopoedist. It was very interesting, and he was a great speaker. I was a little bit worried that I wouldn’t be able to understand everything since it was done in Spanish, but the lecture supplemented by power point was very clear and easy to understand. After the lecture, I went right over to Peggy’s clinic, as I had organized a screening up in the Colonia for that afternoon.
We all met at Peggy’s clinic and laded the truck with supplies, and headed up to the church. We weighed and took temperatures on all of the children, and did pressures and sugars on the adults. Then they all got a brief check-in with the doctors, and were given reference cards to come to the clinic if they needed to. I was not at Clinica Esperanza today since I was at the hospital, but apparently lots of people for La Colonia came after going to the screening. This was really encouraging, because after talking to some people in the Colonia, I have realized that many people do not know that Clinica Esperanza is free for those who can not pay. There is one family in the Colonia that I have visited with a few times, and after their screening the mother told me that she knew she should take her kids to the clinic, but she had 5 kids and did not have the money to take them. I told her it was not a problem if she was unable to pay, and her whole face lit up, and gave me a hug. She also told me that her father was sick and she would like to take him to the clinic, but that he was unable to walk down to the screening. I went with her up to the top of the Colonia to do a screening on him, and his pressure ended up being dangerously high. He was advised to go to the clinic the next and promised that he would. It was definitely a satisfying day, which was ended by a night dive in West Bay with Dr. Gross and a few of Peggy’s volunteers.
On Thursday, we were finished clinic by 11, and we all went with Dr. Prado over to the daycare center, where she was going to give de-parasite medication to all of the kids, because apparently a few of them had been vomiting worms. We set up a mini-clinic at the daycare, where we first weighed all of the kids, then calculated medication for each one, and each child got medicated. It was soo different from the US, where I could not imagine what would happen if someone came in and gave all of the kids medicine without parental persmission. The kids were all so good with taking the medication, and we had fun playing with them as well. On Friday, we also went to the daycare after clinic to give the kids their second dose of medication, and got to play with them some more. Then we all went to lunch in Coxen Hole, and went shoppping for fish. Friday night, we helped Dr. Gross cook a big dinner as a send off for a big group of volunteers that had been at Peggy’s clinic. It was a great week, and very productive as well…we have already seen over 200 patients this month! Next week is my last week with Dr. Gross and Andrea, though, which is sad.
