In November, we took a team from the US to Camotan. As is usual, we had a great week of work seeing patients in both rural mountain villages and in the clinic. This week was also unique. We brought along Project Cure to evaluate local clinics and the local public hospital in Chiquimula. For those of you who are not familiar with Project Cure, it is a US based non profit that acquires used medical supplies from hospitals in the US. They then make sure the equipment works well and send it all around the world. They acquire hospital machines like CT scanners, echocardiogram machines, dialysis machines, ambulances and much more. Each day they send 7 shipping containers of high quality supplies from their warehouses in the US to countries in need. They work in 135 countries.
The Project Cure team meeting with the head of the Chiquimula hospital; Dr. Danilo Salazar.
In Camotan and the surrounding area, if any person needs medical care, they can go to Camotan Clinic or a few local public health clinics. They can also go to the hospital in Chiquimula (the closest city about 45 minutes away). Camotan Clinic has more supplies than any of the local public health clinics. These public health clinics are notoriously underfunded and stretched thin on supplies. The public hospital in Chiquimula cares for many thousands of patients monthly. But like the public clinics in the region, the hospital has very few supplies. It needs medicines and equipment (like an ultrasound machine, a dialysis machine, a dental chair and much more). It was for this reason that Camotan Clinic brought Project Cure down to our corner of rural Guatemala.
While some of us were working with Project Cure, we also had the clinic seeing patients and we did mountain visits. If you read any of our blogs, you know that the mountains extend seemingly forever above Camotan. These mountains have many small villages that have minimal or no medical care. If someone gets sick far in these mountains, it is often an hour’s drive on rough and dangerous roads just to reach Camotan. And if they need a hospital, it is another 45 minutes to Chiquimula. Thus for years we have built relationships in these villages (called aldeas) and have charts on patients who need chronic medicines yet cannot come down to Camotan Clinic. So, we come to them. Our November trip was a follow up trip: we saw numerous patients in each village who needed medication refills, blood pressure checks; any patient that needed follow up who could not get down to Camotan. These “hut calls” are often a highlight. We visit patients in their villages or in their homes and get to share a bond with them as we help them.
Follow ups in a rural small aldea
Project Cure visits Camotan Clinic
We are hopeful for the future of health care in the Camotan area. While we await government approval of Project Cure’s equipment, we continue to work hard. We see patients every day and make relationships in the medical community we work in. It is the support of all of you who give time, energy, prayers and financial support that makes what we do possible. So thank you!
And thank you for reading!
And for those of you in the Denver area, come to our 4th Annual Fundraiser at Infinite Monkey Theorem December 12th 6pm-9pm. See you there!