Honduras Medical Brigade

There were 28 of us at the Tegucigalpa airport. 22 undergraduates (most of whom were pre-med), me (the lone grad student), one nurse, one registered nurse, one medical doctor, one opthamologist, and one pharmacist. And something like twenty-two 50lb black body bags of medications and medical supplies.

We took the 1.5 hour bus ride to where we would be staying, a place called Rapaco which just so happened to be the old summer home of a former Honduran president. No big deal.

Hammocks lined the compound at Rapaco.

We spent the first day settling in (28 people to one large room. Needless to say, not a whole lot of sleeping happened) and the next day packing medications with our Honduran pharmacist, Mirelle. We unpacked the 22 black body bags onto shelves organized into types of medications....kids antibiotics, adult cough and cold, derm, etc. We counted out 30 tablets of each medication into hundreds of small zip-lock bags, and repacked the organized meds back into suitcases. It was a long process but we put a little Honduran hip-hop on the CD player and got to work.

Paige and Christina sorting meds.

Our first day of the medical brigade was a little overwhelming. We arrived in the morning to the town of Hoya Grande to hundreds of people waiting in a single-file line standing in the light rain. Some held umbrellas, most didn't, but all stood patiently in line. All day long. With small children. Many without food and water. Most had trekked for hours to get to the small school/church that we turned into our make-shift medical clinic. If only patients at retail pharmacies would wait patiently. For 15 minutes.

The school where we set up the medical clinic.

Students were broken up into groups to work in triage, translate for our doctors, and work in the pharmacy. Naturally, 3 out of the 4 days I was in the pharmacy. It was interesting to see the medications that were prescribed over and over again. Every patient received albendazole to treat parasites and vitamins and most patients also received acetaminophen or ibuprofen. A lot of patients had skin fungi and we also gave out a lot of antibiotic suspensions for kids. Many patients needed natural tears because of the dry and sunburned eyes from working out in the fields all day. Very few patients had chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, or asthma.

Setting up the pharmacy in the community church with our Honduran pharmacist, Mirelle, on the far left. Our pharmacy consisted of plastic bags of medications organized into suitcases.

What was most surprising was the number of children young women already had at such a young age. A 20 year-old woman already had 4 kids. Another was 15 years-old, had an 8-month old daughter, and had just been told she was pregnant again. I wonder how that feels? To be 15 and told that you will be having another child...

Dr. Cederna's table with her student translator, Rikav.

I took a break from the pharmacy for one brigade day and went around shadowing different doctors. During my stint with citología, or gynecology, we saw a patient with a 2cm x 2cm lump in her left breast as well as a cervical polyp. It seemed like a lose-lose situation. If she manages to gather the money necessary to perform the biopsy to determine if she has breast cancer and it is cancer, she wouldn't be able to pay for treatment. According to the patient, what would be the point of learning it was cancer if she wouldn't be able to do anything about it?

As of now, we are communicating with Global Brigades to figure out how to fundraise for this patient to be able to get a biopsy and to treat her cancer if she does have it.

The view on the drive from Rapaco to Hoya Grande.

Most of the other patients had short-term problems that could be immediately treated. All in all, we saw 968 patients in 4 days.