Medical Team Report

Today's medical team (Bob, Dale, and Shirley) spent the day at Good Samaritan Clinic, run by Penny and Ralph ("Grandpa") Digman, in Roaring Creek. Penny is a nurse/midwife. Consultations at the clinic are for a donation of $2 Belize ($1 US) per family. We first worked with Herb and Shana (from Bemidgi, Minnesota) to unpack medications and supplies. Herb is a pharmacist who is here on his own with his children. Part of Herb's effort this week is working with a local anti-drug program. Dale and Bob then saw patients for the remainder of the morning. Bob removed an infected cyst from a man's face, treated a young man for a sprained ankle, and diagnosed a young girl as anemic, among other things. Dale saw women and children. She diagnosed and treated asthma, migraine headache, allergies, and other problems. Shirley assisted with prescriptions and with the children and took pictures.

At lunch time, Bob and Shirley talked with "Grandpa", who is working on building a Learning Center between the clinic and the church that will assist children with homework and will have computers. Good Samaritan currently uses a generator for electricity. They can power the clinic or the church, but not both at the same time. Grandpa said it would cost $5750 to bring in electricity.

After lunch, Dale taught a class on diabetes attended by 18 adults (16 women, 2 men) and 5 children. The total class time was approximately 2 hours. Dale talked for 30 minutes and then asked and answered questions. When answers to her questions (or lack thereof) revealed that the class participants had not understood something, Dale repeated and simplified the material until it was understood. There were many questions about proper diet and about the harmful effects of diabetes. Dale was gratified by the appropriateness and responsiveness of the questions. Some people who spoke only Spanish had their children translate for them. While Dale talked, Penny and Shirley started medical records and took weight, temperature, and blood pressure measurements. 7 to 8 people had high blood sugar (over 200), and three were over 500. Dale and Penny talked with them about diet and taking medication and appropriate, as appropriate.

A set of 23 pictures with captions will go with this report when we return home or if we are able to upload them from an Internet cafe in Belmopan.

Shirley Moore