GLMS FOUNDATION NICARAGUA MISSION
NICARAGUA
AUTHOR Hugo Hua , MD
Though I normally have the luxury of planning for trips
- mentally , emotionally , even setting specific goals - as a resident physician , I was simply content with the time to have packed essentials before meeting the rest of the team at the airport . It is my first medical trip . I am the youngest . There are no other residents . And to heighten this disquietude that accompanies a new experience , I am one of the two pediatric health care providers . These thoughts swirled to and fro in my mind in the weeks before departure . Still , I walked to the gate with an eager openness to whatever might come my way in Managua , Nicaragua .
Our group had both first-timers and veterans , a mix of active and retired health care providers and eager volunteers whose day jobs have little to do with the medical field . Unlike other trips in which the medical aspect remained the central focus , this trip ’ s purpose was to complement the efforts of an overarching organization . Hand in Hand Ministries , led by Ed and Barbara Dunsworth , has been operating in Managua since 2005 with the main purpose of sponsoring private school education for close to 100 children who would not otherwise get the opportunity . Hand in Hand supplies them with the tools to thrive in that setting not only by providing education , but also by engaging families to take significant roles in this shared goal . Our mission that week was to provide both the children and their families , as well as other clinic patients , basic health evaluations .
The clinic days were wild and often so chaotic that passersby could imagine a festival taking place instead . Children waiting to be seen worked on arts and crafts , soared on the swings and filled the concrete lot with chalky artwork . Our clinic was housed under canopies that sat in the fresh air . After each evaluation by the dentist , the children or adults made their way through the canopies . We examined dozens of patients each day , the vast majority of whom were healthy . We prescribed basic remedies for common musculoskeletal complaints , answered questions about seasonal allergies and performed full physicals to catch anything grossly abnormal .
On one of the free mornings , I joined Dr . Goetz Kloecker for a visit to one of the hospitals in Managua . We toured the premises , and he brought a gift to the Hematology-Oncology department , a textbook on blood disorders . Though the entrance was already crawling with people , the density only increased the farther we went into the hospital . We met an oncologist whose desk had been taken over by teetering towers of paper charts . He said that his 50-patient list was notable in that it wasn ’ t a 70-patient list , for once . As I followed them around , I could tell instantly that the demand for care far exceeded the available staff and resources .
One of the days , paired with another volunteer , we visited a family ’ s home as planned . Dr . Mary Lou Reichert and I visited one of
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