Often Hospitals, University Medical Students and practicing doctors will organize groups and come to the rural areas of Honduras to assist people. Many Church groups will also recruit doctors, nurses and medical professionals to come along or have such members already in their groups who will volunteer. The combination of all these medical missions is awesome.
The UB Church is one group that travels to Southern Honduras to the many Mountain Villages, which have little if any medical care. They take with them doctors, medical assistants, physical therapy people, nurses, dentists and EMTs. Like most groups they land at the Capital City of Tegucigalpa and then take buses and sometimes pick-ups into the villages. Volunteers often pay their own way; others are sponsored at $1200 each. They figure that;
"If at least one physician accompanies the team, we can purchase enough medication to assist with 1000 patients for a very small cost."Their strategy seems to be paying off as during each medical mission they are assisting more and more people who are in desperate need of medical attention.
Another medical group from Austin Texas from "The St. Williams Medical Missionary Team" which is a private group relying solely on personal donations. They told of some pretty bad cases of infections and about the long lines of those in need of medical help. Due to the high volumes of people needing help things must be set up very quickly turning the building into a drop-in health clinic with lines as far as you can see.
Of course the first priority is to make sure the place is sanitized and the dogs need to find something else to do for a while. One medical doctor volunteer, Dr. Nathalie Fiset, explained how their team set things up and how each complimented the other and how they quickly organized to help the onslaught of patients;
" Dr Rudy is always my “left-winger” and I can call upon him anytime I need something complicated explained in Spanish to the mother. I see children and women under 35 years old. There are two other doctors who are seeing adults. Dr Jeff Kroll is a urologist and takes care of the minor surgeries with the material we brought. On an average day we see over 1000 people. I counted one day for fun and realized I had seen over 250 patients. Not a bad day at the office. We have to stop at sun down because we have no electricity and it gets pretty dark to see and diagnose when people show us a rash."
So many of the people in rural Honduras do not understand medicine or how it works. Some think that a magic pill will be given to them. They think that a couple of vitamins will cure their malnutrition. Of course the medical volunteers know it does not work that way, yet still work hard to help any way they can. Some cases are simple others very serious and yet the camaraderie and team work helps them through another long day;
"One of the days, my energy level was very high and I must have seen over 300 people because Rudy was pretty sick and could see less people. Whenever I was done seeing patients, I would walk up to Ray, the man doing circulation and say“LISTA” meaning I am ready and he would send in more people. One time, I walk up to him and I say“lista”. He proudly sends in a family of seven. I rapidly see them and send them to pharmacy and walk back to Ray saying; 'Is that the best you can do?'”
After a hard day helping people until it is impossible to see what you are doing any longer due to darkness the team is both amped with energy and exhausted at the same time. Grateful for making it through and physically and mentally drained. Like a group of marathon runners they reflect upon what they had just done, knowing that they need to get some sleep and prepare for the next day and do it all over again. The patients and locals are so appreciative noted one volunteer of the medical team;
"Most people stay with us after the clinic is finished and sing and pray with us returning to their home walking in the dark late at night".The serious cases are the ones which really take their toll on the volunteers said most of the medical doctors and assistants we interviewed. They all agreed that this is why they volunteered and said that it was lucky they arrived when we did. Each medical team had such stories of how they saved a young child's life. Dr. Nathalie Fiset recalled one serious situation that was beyond their immediate abilities with the equipment and supplies they had brought;
"I had seen a child with severe asthma who was turning blue and losing consciousness. After giving him all the antibiotics, cortisone shots and inhalers we could see he was not getting better. When we told the mother she needed to go to the hospital, she said that was not possible because she had other children to take care of. We managed to arrange for her to get a ride from the only person who had a car and a neighbor would take care of the other children. If this child did not go to the hospital he would have died."
The dental care and assistance needed for Hondurans is also a huge issue, as most people never brush their teeth and at a very young age, they have advanced cavities and teeth rotting to the bone. The dentists who go on these medical missions are doing only extractions-hundreds of them per day. One volunteer working along side a dentist pulling teeth stated;
"They often put me next to the dentist and seeing and hearing all those extractions make me want to “double-brush” my teeth at night!"Most Honduras people are very tough and often women are breastfeeding while getting their teeth extracted, talk about dedication to motherhood? Of course dentists are a precious commodity for any medical mission to Honduras, as it seems they can never get enough.
There are so many emotional stories about children and their families and the medical assistance that is so desperately needed. Let us share just a few more with you, this one from a medical mission in 2005;
"I have seen so many cases of cerebral palsies, I found it incredible. People take these misfortunes with resignation and carry their crosses. Often, the women do not have pre-natal care, suffer from severe anemia and malnutrition and give birth alone at home. When the birth is complicated and takes long, the baby is often born stillborn and they burry it in their backyard."
The women of rural Honduras are unbelievable and will do whatever it takes for their children, often sacrificing them selves and struggling just to give their children a better life. It is amazing to see that level of commitment and strength of character. Each one deserves a medal of honor for their daily endeavors. You cannot help but feel the raw emotions as you watch them. Nathalie told us these emotional stories after her medical mission journey;
"I saw a woman who was carrying her 8-years old (almost 100 pounds) vegetative gorgeous looking girl for hours to come and see us. We got to talk and I explained to her there was not much I could do for her daughter. I shower her exercises to prevent stiffness and told her what to feed her. The little girl will eventually die soon. The mother told me she had another birth the year before but the baby was stillborn. Her husband who was often absent and could not deal with his wife’s pain, was of no support. The woman then told me:” If my little girl dies, I will kill myself!” We hugged and cried together…"
"There was a little girl who had severe burns on all her back and was in bad pain. Jeff [another medical doctor on the team] changed her bandages and gave her a Penicillin shot. The medications we use are the ones we brought and we rapidly run low on the essentials. The people working at pharmacy are awesome and get to be very “creative” in helping as many people as we can. It happened some days that we had to “cut the line” as it was impossible to see everyone. Most people are very understanding and ask us where we will be the next day and start walking towards that direction hoping to be the first ones in line the next day. "
"I saw another old lady who was about 70 years old. She was a widower and complained of back and neck pain. She was accompanied by 3 children. I asked here where their parents were and she answered me“le matar". I asked her to repeat as I was not sure she really meant someone had killed her daughter. She told me that she had three more children at home. She was sleeping on the dirt floor and at night and had only three tortillas to spread between the children and herself. That got me tears into my eyes. I slipped her some money and told her not to tell anyone as I did not want to start a riot. She hugged me and thanked me deeply. I often think of her and wonder how she is doing."
All volunteers are needed and all types of professional medical people are needed regardless of their specialty. There are so many people that need assistance and the lines of those in need of medical attention are so long that every single person is a valuable member of the medical team and you will be surprised how well you will do and all the good you can bring. Dr. Nathalie Fiset drives the point home in her original reservations;
"To be honest I was a little concerned about doing the missions at first since I only do obstetrics in my medical practice. The cases were so obvious though that I got comfortable the very first day especially when someone comes with diabetes and their sugar levels are at pre-coma levels often, same thing for high blood pressure: the numbers are mind blowing. When the other doctors treat people with diabetes or high blood pressure, they can only provide a couple of day’s supplies of medications. We are aware that this will only help to control the disease for a short period of time…until another medical brigade comes along."