MEDICAL MISSION: UNMERCENARIES NEEDED

Robert Kirschner of Surgicorps with village child

Poor venting from wood burning stoves causing epidemic of Asthma

On May 29th, Robert Kirschner representing Surgicorps, Maxwell Dotson the CEO of the newly formed NGO- One World, One Community- and I traveled to the remote village of Aguacate, Guatemala, located a short distance below the southern border of Mexico. Our purpose was to explore the possibility of building a health clinic to serve the needs of this village of 4,000 and other nearby villages, all of which have no ready access to medical care. As part of our outreach we met with the village elders and mothers to catalogue the most commonly reported illnesses requiring treatment. This information would be used to help recruit the appropriate health care professionals needed to both heal and prevent their infirmities. Among the most commonly noted conditions were asthma, gastritis, headaches, miscarriages, uterine cancer and bleeding, breast cancer, arthritis and prostatitis. Of course, there is no screening to diagnose or prevent any of these conditions, nor is there prenatal care. The only health care in the community is offered by a young volunteer name Juana, who receives government sponsored training three days a month. She knows how to extract teeth, give injections, take blood pressure, stitch wounds and administer intravenous solutions. Beyond this, there is little else that she can do, hence the need for a clinic. The nearest hospital is two hours away in Mexico, without ambulance service, and even when treated, the people cannot afford the medicine, much less the bus fare to get to the hospital. Against the backdrop of this lamentable dearth of care is the fact that 80 percent of Guatemala’s physicians are in Guatemala City, leaving only 20 percent for the rest of the country. Given this hard reality, it is our hope, with the blessing of Metropolitan Athenagoras of Mexico, to begin building the clinic soon and staffing it with the proper health care personnel. Supporting us in this effort is Father Evangelos Pata, the village priest in Aguacate. The clinic will be attached to the church and be equipped with examination rooms, a dispensary, sleeping quarters for visiting doctors, dentists and nurses, a laboratory, diagnostic machines and waiting rooms. The benefit to this fast growing community will be immense, there being more than 300 births a year. In planning this project, we are sustained by the example of holy, healing unmercenary physicians Cosmas and Damian, who offered their services free of charge. As the Holy Scriptures inspired them, “freely you have received, freely give” (Matthew 10: 8), so may we also be inspired.