UT med students to aid Nicaraguans
Written by David Steffen | | news@toledofreepress.comNicaragua’s elite can seek medical care in immaculate hospitals or fly to Miami and combine a doctor’s appointment with a posh shopping excursion.
However, a group of University of Toledo medical students will travel to Nicaragua on Aug. 15 to treat those who lack even the most basic medical care. The region’s disparities affected students.
“We drove past a really nice mall, and it was like, ‘I don’t think many of our patients went shopping there,’” said Victoria Bradford, who volunteered last year. “I’m sure if you have the money, you can get anything you get here.”
Twenty-four medical students, physicians’ assistants and nursing students will travel to León, Nicaragua. Four physicians and one dentist will accompany the students. All will work with local physicians to administer basic care to locals.
Will Schmitt, a fourth-year medical student, started the Nicaragua medical missions trip three years ago. During a one-year break, he traveled to Central America and worked with various medical aid organizations.
“Of the countries I visited, I love Nicaragua the most,” Schmitt said. “To me, Nicaragua has a lot of culture. The people in Nicaragua are very welcoming.”
Locals are appreciative of the care, Bradford said, and many show up for treatment.
“They’re really grateful,” she said. “We would set up the chairs, and there was already a line of people.”
Schmitt and Bradford said students will help administer basic health care, including vitamins and anti-parasitic medications. Schmitt said malaria and dengue fever are other maladies that afflict locals. He said it’s a good learning experience, medically.
“You do come across it in the U.S., but it’s much more rare,” he said.
Wal-Mart has committed pharmaceutical supplies, and students have obtained money through fundraisers.
For the students, seeing mass medical care in Nicaragua has made them appreciative.
“We toured a hospital there, and it was kind of sobering,” Bradford said.
She said doctors were fine but they lacked resources. Even prescription notepads can be a rarity.
“There’s even a low supply of scrap paper to write prescriptions,” Schmitt said.
Visiting a Third World country has made Schmitt contemplate his own situation, he said.
“It’s helped me appreciate the resources we have at our disposal,” he said. “It makes you appreciative, for sure.”
Bradford said she also respected the doctors for their perseverance, despite their shortages.
“It made me appreciate the doctors that are down there because they have to practice with a lot less,” she said.
Many medical students cite in their applications that they want to help people, Bradford said, but the missions trip allows her to follow through with her dedication.
“They say all the nice things, but this is a way to put your money where your mouth is,” she said.
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Write check to: UT Foundation
Memo:
Nicaragua Medical Mission
As the owner of a business in Nicaragua, I have seen a lot. I suppose many things could be had at the malls Ms. Bradford visited; however, in reality, the prices at the malls are quoted in dollars and are at American prices. They are geared for the Western tourist, not the locals. Those prices exceed the pocketbooks of resident extranjeros as well as the locals. The price for a replacement Swiss Army watchband is more than Los Angeles or in St. Louis. A very small, soft head of lettuce is UDS $.60 – hardly a bargain. These two examples are at opposite ends of the needs scale.
This comment was posted on July 31st, 2009 at 1:52 amI implore the non-profits and extranjeros to check their tongues and seal their lips before raking everyone across the coals for expenditures in 3rd world countries.
Vitamins, antiparasitic and malaria medicines are all available through Centro Salud (Central Health Dept.) for free or at very low cost.
MINSA and/or Centro Salud do an excellent job of administering to the communities. The issue may be educating the people about the problems or the potential for problems. Why don’t the people Ms. Bradford speaks of go to Centro Salud? The help is already there. We all get parasites and the treatment is simple and free. Virtually every community has a Cento Salud.
The hospital in Leon is deplorable – complete with roaches scrambling up the walls to rats running under the beds and birds flying in the broken or non-existent windows. Add to that toilets that do not work and no sink in which to wash after using a non-flushing toilet. It is clearly a staph infection (or more) nightmare. The elevators do not work, there are no orderlies to carry patients for x-rays; therefore, requiring non-medically-qualified family members to transport critically injuried people to upper floors, through stairwells, risking permanent back, neck and/or nerve injury. Don’t tell me these have not happened because I have been there.
So, please, Ms. Bradford, stop complaining about the malls and get with the program in which you enrolled – medicine! Who care what the tourists can purchase at the malls – the real people living in Nicaragua, myself included, do not shop at the two malls in Managua. We eek our a living in $C Cordovas/pesos – not dollars or euros.
Ms. Anderson,
This comment was posted on August 3rd, 2009 at 10:29 pmYou may notice that Victoria’s quote mentions that she drove past the mall. Other than that, she really did not mention it, as she was focusing on the medicine. In fact, the only reason she probably was quoted as saying that in the first place, was because she was asked about the disparity of the Nicaraguan population. She certainly was not complaining about the malls, merely mentioning that you could in fact buy nice things if you have the money. Is that any different than the difference between Hollywood or Miami Beach and rural Appalachia? I certainly think not.
Instead, Ms. Bradford’s focus is on the Medicine. It is certainly nice that the Centro Salud provides all of these medications as such a cheap price. When I am down there this summer, I will tell the 80 year old woman with a kidney infection (because she is dehydrated from walking so far) that she will have to walk 4 more hours to get the medication she needs from the nearest office. Or how about the patients that medicines will not help. Anxiety, PTSD, poor hygiene, lack of hydration, or people with lingering war wounds. Medicine is not about the drugs you can dispense, it is about the person and how you can improve their life. Most of the people we treat do not eek out a living in Cordova. They make their living by growing their own food, raising their own livestock, building their own houses.
Victoria and the rest of the students are with the program in which we enrolled and we certainly are not coming down there for any other reason than the resilient real people we treat every day.