Mary Carol Todd is the Vice President for Medical Management and Palliative Care for Catholic Healthcare West. She has been our mission team leader for the last four years. This is the view from her mission:
I have such mixed emotions while on our trip and of course after I return. I was amazed as usual by the team, their commitment, spirit, teamwork and clinical skills. The team was a wonderful blend of experienced CHW clinicians and fresh eyes, from new doctors, nurses, pharmacist, physical therapist and communications and business office personnel. The immediate desire of the team pitch in and help, to see what needs to be done and do it and above all to serve the patients, it is truly amazing to see how quickly everyone found their role and place on the team.
Mary Carol working the lab station at one of our clincis.
Our planned schedule was changed daily, yet the team never let that slow them down, just stepped in and up to the adjustments necessary, when we started with a clinic the day after arriving, after spending over 18 hours just getting to our destination. Several team members had the opportunity to educate local nurses, which was a real breakthrough, I think we found one key to improving the health of the patients we serve, through the local nurses and nursing students.
We were also excited to have medical students working with us every day in our clinics, the ability to provide hands on education as well as information on how the US health care system worked was gratifying for our team and the students as well. In addition to the Health Promoters we have worked with in years past, we had an exciting new corps of volunteers. Led by Selvin, a young local man who has worked with us for the past three years with an amazing smile and desire to help, there was a group of teenagers, known as the Collaborators, who volunteered daily in our clinics.
Our friend Selvin, who has become an indispensible member of our team.
The teenage collaborators helped identify reading glass magnification needed for older patients, provided sunglasses to people with eye irritation due to long hours working in the fields, weighed and measured the children for nutritional screening and varnished the children’s teeth with fluoride. Without their assistance we would not have been able to provide the varnishes nor assess for malnutrition, they were an amazing addition to our team and example of young people with a desire to volunteer, WOW!
The daily referral sessions with Dr. Castellano, were new this year and very reassuring as well as informative, we learned that there are more follow-up resources available than we knew, and had a greater sense that severe cardiac or nutritional problems would be addressed. We also learned more about the significant differences between US and Guatemalan healthcare. In order to have a relatively simple surgery there, it is required that you provide two units of blood, because there is no blood banking system, no volunteer donor process. Also the compatibility testing is only performed in Guatemala City, 4 hours away and the specimens are taken twice a week there for testing. They will not perform surgery if blood has not been donated and tested, so it sometimes makes it very difficult to have hernia surgery, if you do not have two people who can travel to the hospital, an hour away by bus, donate the blood, then the patient must return on the specified day of the week for a possible time slot. Very complicated and time consuming for someone who must work the coffee harvest or in the fields. Also fro Dr. Castellano I learned that there are not enough physician resources to see and diagnose patients who need follow-up, our team provides those resources which allows the patients with needs to access services that are available to them, once an accurate diagnosis is made.
Dr. Frank Baudino and Nancy Link spent the months before our trip working out a nutritional assessment process to identify malnourished children at our clinics. Thanks to the librarians (Candace Walker from Dominican Hospital and Eva Perkins from Northridge Hosptial Medical Center) who conducted the literature review that led us to our methodology. Using children’s height and weights, and a reference chart we were able to identify when a child was acutely malnourished and also identified some children with stunted growth from long standing chronic malnutrition. In the daily referral process we learned that the children would be provided with “Plumpy Nut” an amazing notional supplement, combining peanut butter, sugar and dried milk, tasty enough for a child to want to eat it and not requiring refrigeration. It is provided in Guatemala by UNICEF and we found hundreds of empty packages on our clinic.
Mary Carol, trying on the baby sling
We had several patients that were sent to the hospital, for acute illnesses, several that we will be following for surgical services, such as the cleft palate child and the boy with the club foot, described earlier, who would be eligible to have the surgery in Guatemala, but we discovered he lives just on the other side of the Honduras border, so a new plan is needed for his follow-up care.
When we are in Guatemala we always take precautions for the safety of our team. This year we experienced several situations that questioned our safety and sadly resulted in our decision to leave Guatemala early. Our team discussed the situations and identified the priorities, serving patients and our safety being the two most important and in that order. I had such mixed emotions about leaving early and the feeling of sadness about leaving before we had completed our clinics. I have learned that leadership often requires us to make decisions when there are competing priorities and strong emotions. With the assistance of our team and reaching out to our leaders at home, we saw that the safety of our team required us to leave early. While we are all saddened by the early departure, there are so many things that were accomplished and patients served, I feel very proud of the team’s accomplishments, support for one another and for the unwavering desire to provide services to the people of Guatemala. I anticipate we will have further discussions with our partners in Guatemala as we sort out the circumstances of our situation, supplies, follow-up, needs and future plans.
I have only positive memories of my time in Esquipulas and the expressions of gratitude we received from the patients as well as our clinical partners and volunteers there. A part of my heart remains in Esquipulas and my fervent hope is to return and continue our work.
Keep up the GREAT WORK !!!! :D
Posted by: Jennifer sanchez | October 26, 2010 at 08:24 PM
He is a good friend that speaks well of us behind our backs.
Posted by: Mulberry Bags UK Factory | October 17, 2011 at 09:55 AM
Love those! I enjoy following your posts on facebook and rss!
Posted by: red bottom | November 16, 2011 at 08:39 AM