One of my main incentives for taking a trip to Mexico this year was to help out with a medical brigade from the University of Iowa Physicians Assistant (PA) program. My friend Cam, who I met at the Olympia Free Clinic, lives six months of the year in Mazatlan and before she left Olympia last fall, she and her husband Frank invited me to stay at their house in Mazatlan and help out with the clinics. With my experience in a hospital and helping with a medical brigade in Ecuador two years ago, plus the interpreting that I've done at the Olympia Free Clinic since then, I felt well equipped and fortunate to be asked to help!
My mom and I arrived in Mazatlan a few days before the clinics started and celebrated my 23rd birthday with Frank and Cam. She had to fly home on April 1st, and on the following morning, Cam and I took the bus from the old town to the gold zone, and I met the medical team that had just flown in from Iowa. Our team for the first week consisted of about 18 people: PA students, MD and PA graduates, nurses, interpreters, friends and the directors Bill and Katie. During the first week of the trip, we loaded up a van and a bright yellow truck (which I often rode in the back of!) and drove to a different "colonia" or outlying neighborhood on the four clinic days. Bill (internal medicine MD) and Katie (emergency room PA) both teach at the University of Iowa, and they have been coming to these same colonias twice a year for the past seven years, so they have computer records on many of the patients and are continuing to build up their database.
Volunteer Amanda (left) worked the pharmacy while Katie kept a close eye on her PA students and entered all the patient information into her laptop.
PA student Rachel and a family that she worked with in the Madero Colonia
While many of the patients were children with colds and older women with a variety of ongoing complaints, I still learned more about medicine and appropriate ways to interpret and pass information between patient and provider. One memorable patient was a 100 year old woman who was unable to walk to the clinic site, but her daughter brought us to their house because they were convinced that she was going deaf. Volunteer provider John took a look and discovered that she just had lots of wax built up in her ears and we provided her children and grandchildren with the tools to clean them out. She was so grateful, and incredibly healthy at age 100!
Interpreting for John, an internal medicine resident at the Univ. of Iowa
Working with PA student Stephanie on the last day of clinics at Colonia El Ejido
The following week we had three more clinic days in different colonias, but unfortunately one provider and a few interpreters had to go back to work in the states, so that was an added challenge.
All in all, the Iowa team was very well organized and the clinics ran smoothly. In seven days of clinics, we saw about 578 patients and the four PA students in the group received credit for an
international rotation. My position as an interpreter was very interesting and I got a unique look at a style of medical care that almost entirely ignores the present Mexican health care system and avoids confronting the root of the problem, which is this expensive and inadequate system. The brigade provided some temporary support for the patients and could definitely be improved with public health education. However, many of the patients we saw lacked any sort of medical care and they were undoubtedly grateful for the support and attention we provided.
Group photo...I ended up being front and center!
