November 8th- Week 2
This week the residents and I went to Anthony’s Keys resort to swim with the dolphins. First, we were lucky enough to have Dr. Howard arrange a tour with his friend Dr. Paul of the hyperbaric chamber at the AKR clinic. They decompress hundreds of patients a year, mostly lobster and conch divers. We even got to see a rescue course do a nitrogen narcosis simulation in the tank, which was entertaining as they all started laughing and loosing motor function at 165 feet of pressure. Then the dolphin swim was a pretty incredible and fun experience; I would highly recommend it.
Dr. Howard arrived last Saturday and this week we all went to the gala fundraiser for Hospitál Roátan. We were concerned that our sundresses and flip-flops wouldn’t cut it for the formal dress code, but we didn’t come prepared for a gala. It was in a nice ballroom at the Henry Morgan resort. In true island fashion, it began about an hour and a half late. The director of the hospital, a few doctors, and the minister of health made speeches about the lack of funding from the Honduran government, the poor or lacking equipment, and the lack of medicines and supplies. Yet, they do have impressive numbers successful treatments, surgeries, and healthy babies delivered, and lives saved. The speeches though did drag on and finally we had a nice dinner. The crowd seemed to be various ex-patriots, business owners, and medical workers. I hope they raised a significant amount of money.
One day this week I got to follow Dr. Nicole and Dr. Rachel on rounds in the maternity ward. There were no deliveries in progress, but I was shocked by the delivery room with its black mold ceiling, lack of sheets on beds, and total lack of privacy. I watched as Dr. Rachel performed a newborn exam and kindly explained to me everything she was looking for on this healthy baby. Sadly, earlier this week we saw a much less healthy baby. A young mother brought in her one month old 1500-gram baby. Dr. Nicole did not believe I weighed correctly because a baby that small would surely be living in the hospital on all sorts of monitors in the US. The baby’s chart did not say how premature the infant was, but the mother said she was able to take him home the same day. Dr. Nicole encouraged her to feed they baby as much as possible and return for weight checks twice a week. This is just one example of a problem that gets let go because of lack of money, space, or resources to conduct proper treatment. A was also surprised to find out, as Dr. Howard told us, the average age of a 1st time mother on Roátan is 14 years old!
One afternoon the doctors did check ups on a few sick kids at the day care in Coxen Hole. They had a difficult time, as there were no records or parents to give health history. We questioned how helpful this was, but realistically some of these kids may otherwise never see a doctor.
Another sad story this week was a woman who brought in a 3 month old with swollen rock hard cervical lymph nodes. She told us that she was in fact not the mother because the mother had died during the birth and this woman was simply given the baby, I’m not sure that she was even related. She was totally unprepared financially for a child but was doing the best she could. The doctors decided to admit the baby to the hospital for care and testing to determine the problem to rule out TB or cancer. The next day we went and bought a can of formula for the woman. She clearly didn’t have much, so we thought at least this would help feed the boy for a few weeks. She was grateful.
This weekend hurricane Ida was projected to hit Roátan, but thankfully it changed course and we had a beautiful sunny weekend. We celebrated Nicole’s birthday and rented a pick up truck and drove to the East end of the island. The one road across the island goes high into the hills and along the ridge the ocean is visible off the North and the South sides. Beautiful views. We went to Camp Bay (a 30 mile drive that took 1.5 hours!). We spent they day there, the only ones on a beautiful expansive beach.
