My first impression of Roatán was how similar the island was to my own island home, Guam. The weather, the vegetation, and the relaxed pace of life on the island all brought back memories of my childhood, particularly the images of children running around barefoot and jumping off the docks to cool off from the afternoon heat in the clear blue ocean. My first couple days in the clinic, however, brought me back to reality making it clear that although this was a gorgeous tropical paradise the people here have real problems and very few resources to remedy these problems due to in part to poverty but also because of Roatan’s geographic isolation.
The austerity of the Global Healing clinic and the doctors working with such limited resources was a real eye-opener for me, particularly coming from my clinical research job at Stanford where our Pediatric Pain Management team is so quick to spend money on superfluous supplies like heat lamps, or where we drink our five dollar chai tea lattes daily without thinking twice about the cost. I was completely humbled by the fact that part of our job at the clinic was to wash and disinfect the ear scopes once a week because it would cost too much to simply throw them away after one use, or how I was using alcohol to disinfect the temperature probe after each use for the same reason. The reality is that in places like Roatan, a large part of success is learning how be resourceful and efficient with the resources at hand, traits I’ve realized few American doctors have. Another example of how resourcefulness is key when practicing medicine in resource poor situations is how Doctora Prado, when she was unable to find the right size face mask, was able to MacGyver (so to speak) an oversized mask, some tubing, and some medical tape to fit onto the face of a 3 year old girl receiving a nebulized medication for her asthma. I should also add that we washed and disinfected these masks as well after their use.
Despite the limited resources, however, I am confident that the Global Healing clinic is making a positive difference in the lives of our patients. I feel the difference we make is primarily through the education we provide to patients during each visit. One example of this I saw was a young mother who had recently borne a premature baby. Doctora Prado had seen the baby two days earlier, and although nothing was wrong at the time, she had told the mother to return if she noticed that anything at all, even the smallest thing was wrong since her little baby was very fragile. When I triaged this mother and asked her why she had come, she confidently told me that her baby had watery stool and that “la doctora” had told her to return if she had noticed any sign of illness. Her saying this gave me hope that our patients were listening to our advice and following up with care, a task that is often difficult for a population that is poor and uneducated. In the coming weeks I hope I can witness more instances like this.
