Last week, we had the opportunity for a few small medical clinics in remote areas. The first was held in the village of El Ceylán, on the side of Fuego. This was a unique start as it seemed everything was against us making it up the volcano. We faced several delays including our neighbor’s car trouble, the town we needed to pass through being closed by the police with riot gear, being sideswiped by a bus, and the worse road conditions to this town we have ever seen from this seasons unusually heavy rains.
The nurses in this town love their community and work hard despite nearly no support or supplies. They generally are low or out of even basic medications such as children’s acetaminophen. A further challenge in a community such as this is the presence of chronic health conditions such as diabetes or hypertension. They have not been provided with a glucometer or blood pressure cuff so that a blood pressure check or glucose check used to mean an hours bus ride to a town further down the volcano. Since discovering this we left a few basic assessment tools with them, but the gross lack of resources for a town of 7,500 people still remains.
Upon arriving at the health center where we partner, there had already been a line of people waiting for nearly 2 hours! We set up quickly, prayed, and jumped in. Many people in this community have similar chronic illness because of their proximity to Fuego’s frequent eruptions. Nearly every child has respiratory issues that come and go their entire childhood. Many people here also have gastrointestinal bugs from unsafe drinking water. In the short term, these are very treatable– however continual exposure to these environmental factors guarantees these illnesses will eventually return.
Despite our late start, we saw 81 people! With our late start, we stayed rather late as well and lost the light. This matters quite a bit because this health center has not had electricity in months. We finished seeing patients using headlamps and made the dangerous drive down the mountain and through the rivers using the custom high powered LED lights our guys had installed on the trucks for just this purpose.
It was a privilege to serve this community along side such an incredible team. Dr. Coral was incredible and caring with each of her patients, and helped the rest of us sharpen our clinical and assessment skills in the process. Her husband Ed served as an excellent pharmacist. No complaints were heard about the rough roads or long days– only glory that was given to God.
