Alone in Corazón : And Other Tales from the Treehouse
28 LOUISVILLE MEDICINE
by MELISSA L . PERROTTA , MD , FACC , FAAP
Dr . Perrotta is sharing stories from her time on a medical mission in Belize 10 years ago . This three-part series began in the March issue of Louisville Medicine on page 14 and will conclude in the May issue .
Day # 3 , Pre-tending
0600 . It ’ s “ market run ” day before clinic , which
Jillian and I learn the hard way literally means this . You jump into the van that Leslie drives at lightning speed down the bumpy dirt roads into town , jump out and run the length of the open-air market grabbing as many vegetables and fruits as possible in 10 minutes . Jillian and I try to order fish from the fishermen , but they only have two exceedingly large grouper that are frozen solid and still need to be cleaned . The fisherman dunks the less giant grouper into a bucket of water to thaw it , and on his way to the cleaning table , the whole frozen thing flops out onto the floor and slides clear across to the wall . He picks it up without a thought and puts it back into the bucket . We move on .
The rest of the group is clearly well-seasoned at this market thing , armed with their list of needs and each person assigned to obtaining a specific list item . Jillian and I have no such list , no plan at all . In fact , we are a mere three tables down the quarter mile spread of open-air vegetable and fruit stands when the rest of the group is heading back to the van and shooting us dirty looks . Jillian cancels the fish order while I scrounge a few more vegetables together and we pile in with the group . Leslie careens down a few side streets and we stop abruptly at an indoor market where we can buy milk , meat , eggs and pantry items . I agree on two cans of tuna and a carton of eggs , as well as some non-dairy creamer for my wretched instant coffee . We pick up two clinic employees on our way back and arrive at Hillside at 0745 . Jillian and I drop our goods at the tree house and head down to our first day at clinic .
The clinic is small but neat , about the size of a two-car garage , with one private patient exam room for pelvic exams , and two yellow-walled ER-looking patient rooms blocked off with curtains . The clinic is stocked with most basic necessities , including speculums , ophthalmoscopes , tongue depressors , etc ., and there ’ s an entire back closet stocked with clear plastic bins labeled with things like “ Eye kit ,” “ Ear kit ” and “ Respiratory supplies .” The pharmacy connects to the clinic through a small hall where we , the preceptors , sit to staff patients . The charting system is a basic paper chart system with pre-printed notes to fill in . We meet Andrew , another preceptor here for a year as a volunteer from the UK , who gives us the basic rundown of the clinic . He ’ s been in Punta Gorda ( henceforth PG ) since September , and bikes to the clinic from town each morning , which explains his moldy sort of odor , the splatters on his rectangular glasses , his rolled-up scrub pants and muddy black Crocs . He says things like “ the chaahhts ah ovah theh ” and “ I once saw a chap who …” and I like him immediately .
Everything at Hillside , from the supplies to the meds to any equipment , has been donated . The Ministry of Health of Belize apparently doesn ’ t operate this far south due to the difficult road conditions , and so has essentially “ written off ” the villagers in this area , otherwise known as “ The Forgotten Land .” The Ministry still requires the clinic to submit patient names and social security numbers along with diagnoses for tracking purposes , but overall maintains a skeptical attitude towards the clinic and the U . S . manner of medical decision-making .