Guatemala Outreach 1.17.2006
After enjoying a very nice breakfast at the hospital we decided to join the ‘outreach’ group and travel about 2 hours to Santa Elena, the spot where we’d do our work this day “Puesto De Salud”. This trip enabled us to view close up the tremendous mountains that characterize this area of the country. We rode with most of the same crew, Jim, Steve Osborne, Joleen, and additional folks who provide dental support.
Santa Elena is an even more remote area and the clinic we visited has a long, rich history with HELPS. In fact HELPS folks actually spend a portion of their time working out of this particular clinic. Our team consisted of a dentist from Minnesota Dr. Pull, no joke that is the dude’s name, 3 dental assistants/translators, and another physician, Dr. Hill, an ER doc from the St. Louis area.
There was a substantial crowd there when we arrived around 9:30 which grew more and more as the day progressed.. Dr. Pull and the dental team was an amazing example of competence and efficiency. They set up their cool portable dental chairs, laid out their equipment, and started pulling teeth – all outside. While Jim, Dr. Hill, and I worked inside they worked outside pulling teeth, which was a huge need in this community. Of course people with rotten teeth are not healthy, this can cause all kinds of health issues, including cardiac complications, so the order of the day for the dental team was pulling teeth. I was actually in the clinic for most of the day and every time I emerged they were just yanking teeth out. Just before lunch I learned that is all they were there to do.
Inside with Jim we saw a steady stream of patients. About 70% of them complained of various pains brought on by a combination of age and hard work. It doesn’t take much time, or much of a clinical background, to recognize that aches and pains are simply a combination of age and hard physical work. These folks work the land in some of the steepest, mountainous regions I’ve ever seen in person and it is absolutely no surprise they’re experiencing inflammation that is normally reserved for folks twice their age.
Another big problem we saw was worms. Folks got them from the unclean water and contaminated food. The main worm symptom is abdominal discomfort and it was so common that whenever a child signed in they were given worm treatment, a small ‘shot’ of medication that lasts about 3 months.
All of the patients Jim and I saw, except for one, were female with children in tow. The typical group was made up of a mother in her early 30s who had about 3 of her children with her, one of whom had a some minor medical issue. I made a point to understand a bit more about these people. All of them, by virtue of where we were, were indigenous folks of Mayan decent, many of whom didn’t speak Spanish but one of many local languages. Most mothers had between 6 – 10 kids.
One girl in particular stands out, she’s the one in the orange dress in the January 17th pics. Her mother, through a translator, indicated she was having problems in school. She’s about 7 and suffered from big time earwax, probably first built up during an ear infection that are so common to kids her age. Her falling behind in school was a result of her gradually loosing her hearing as a result of wax buildup. Jim had to ‘irrigate’ her ears which basically amounted to shooting purified water into her ear…. a lot of water! I’ve never had an ear infection or needed my ears irrigated so I couldn’t directly relate to what this must feel like however it cannot be too comfortable to have large amounts of water squirted in your ears. This little gurl never cried and just fought through the whole procedure, a real trooper. Her demeanor was indicative of the people Jim and I saw this special day.
The team departed around 4pm and heading back to home base in San Cristobal. I attempted to capture this very scenic drive with the pics, I don’t think I can capture the profound impression their strength continues to have on me.
Santa Elena is an even more remote area and the clinic we visited has a long, rich history with HELPS. In fact HELPS folks actually spend a portion of their time working out of this particular clinic. Our team consisted of a dentist from Minnesota Dr. Pull, no joke that is the dude’s name, 3 dental assistants/translators, and another physician, Dr. Hill, an ER doc from the St. Louis area.
There was a substantial crowd there when we arrived around 9:30 which grew more and more as the day progressed.. Dr. Pull and the dental team was an amazing example of competence and efficiency. They set up their cool portable dental chairs, laid out their equipment, and started pulling teeth – all outside. While Jim, Dr. Hill, and I worked inside they worked outside pulling teeth, which was a huge need in this community. Of course people with rotten teeth are not healthy, this can cause all kinds of health issues, including cardiac complications, so the order of the day for the dental team was pulling teeth. I was actually in the clinic for most of the day and every time I emerged they were just yanking teeth out. Just before lunch I learned that is all they were there to do.
Inside with Jim we saw a steady stream of patients. About 70% of them complained of various pains brought on by a combination of age and hard work. It doesn’t take much time, or much of a clinical background, to recognize that aches and pains are simply a combination of age and hard physical work. These folks work the land in some of the steepest, mountainous regions I’ve ever seen in person and it is absolutely no surprise they’re experiencing inflammation that is normally reserved for folks twice their age.
Another big problem we saw was worms. Folks got them from the unclean water and contaminated food. The main worm symptom is abdominal discomfort and it was so common that whenever a child signed in they were given worm treatment, a small ‘shot’ of medication that lasts about 3 months.
All of the patients Jim and I saw, except for one, were female with children in tow. The typical group was made up of a mother in her early 30s who had about 3 of her children with her, one of whom had a some minor medical issue. I made a point to understand a bit more about these people. All of them, by virtue of where we were, were indigenous folks of Mayan decent, many of whom didn’t speak Spanish but one of many local languages. Most mothers had between 6 – 10 kids.
One girl in particular stands out, she’s the one in the orange dress in the January 17th pics. Her mother, through a translator, indicated she was having problems in school. She’s about 7 and suffered from big time earwax, probably first built up during an ear infection that are so common to kids her age. Her falling behind in school was a result of her gradually loosing her hearing as a result of wax buildup. Jim had to ‘irrigate’ her ears which basically amounted to shooting purified water into her ear…. a lot of water! I’ve never had an ear infection or needed my ears irrigated so I couldn’t directly relate to what this must feel like however it cannot be too comfortable to have large amounts of water squirted in your ears. This little gurl never cried and just fought through the whole procedure, a real trooper. Her demeanor was indicative of the people Jim and I saw this special day.
The team departed around 4pm and heading back to home base in San Cristobal. I attempted to capture this very scenic drive with the pics, I don’t think I can capture the profound impression their strength continues to have on me.
posted by Charles Senteio at
11:35 AM
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