Peru Medical Mission 

The Rotary Club of Homewood Illinois

 

International Humanitarian Program

 

Rotarians Do Make the Difference

 

By Rick Thiernau

 

The seed was sowed at a Homewood, Illinois USA Rotary meeting. This article tells of the planting, nurturing, growth, labor and love that went into a bountiful harvest.

 

A Medical Mission to provide quality medical and surgical care to the needy children and adults at the Cusco Regional Hospital was coming to fruition. The Boeing 757 left Chicago, IL, USA O’Hare International Airport on Friday, May 25^th, 2002. More that 80 travelers, paying their own expenses, reached their final destination on Saturday morning. Tired, excited, and adjusting to an altitude of 11,400 feet (3,355 meters), 35 doctors, 15 nurses, 2 pharmacists, and a group of 38 Rotarians and volunteers were warmly welcomed with native music and festive dancing provided by our coordinating co-sponsor, the Rotary Club of Cusco Peru, District 4300. The hands-on stage of our 10-day Cusco Medical Mission 2002 had just begun.

 

The Rotary Club of Homewood, IL USA and the Rotary Club of Cusco, Peru SA, in conjunction with the Peruvian American Medical Society (PAMS) sponsored a hands-on medical mission to Cusco, Peru, with support from District 6450 Rotary Clubs of Bradley-Bourbonnais, Chicago Heights, Matteson, and Oak Park/River Forest, IL USA.

 

The person behind this mission is Rotarian Dr. Ruben Chuquimia. He started planning this mission almost two years in advance. In November, 2001, Ruben asked the Homewood Rotary Club for their help and support. Needless to say, he received it 100%. As Rotarians normally do, Homewood Rotarians jumped in headfirst. With financial support from the Rotary Clubs of Cusco, Homewood, Bradley Bourbonnais, Chicago Heights, and Matteson, we applied to the RI Foundation for a matching grant. Our Matching Grant application was approved and provided Cusco’s Regional Hospital with much needed medical equipment. In addition to the medical machines purchased with the RI Foundation’s Matching Grant, we collected and shipped donations valued at three million dollars. Two 40-foot containers and two 20-foot containers were filled with medicines, antibiotics, medical and surgical supplies, diagnostic and therapeutic equipment (cardiac monitors, defibrillators, respirators, IV pumps) donated by local pharmaceutical companies, doctors and hospitals, some as far away as Ohio. Bud’s Ambulance Service in Chicago not only donated an ambulance, but also rehabbed and fully stocked the ambulance, free of charge. It is truly amazing. You let people know what you are doing and they are more than happy to help out.

 

We had all the supplies shipped to Peru. This sounds much easier than it is. Countless hours were spent organizing, packing, negotiating, and confirming the shipping. After hearing the details of the Mission, Industrial Crating, Inc. in Itasca, IL donated their man-hours to the mission while asking questions about Rotary. When the containers reached the port near Lima, Peru, Cusco Rotarians and friends unpacked the containers, put everything into their cars and trucks and took all of this to the hospital in Cusco where we would be working. This alone was a true team effort. Along with future Homewood Rotarian Ezekiel Chuquimia, Cusco Rotary Club members, Fedor Rubatto, President of the Rotary Foundation and Oscar Delgado, Club President coordinated this massive effort.

 

While the Cusco Rotarians continued to coordinate the Mission with the Faculty of Medicine and medical staff of Cusco hospitals, and plan for our arrival, Homewood Rotarians were planning flights, work and leisure schedules, and training and lecture programs. We arrived in Cusco on a sunny Saturday with a heart-warming welcome provided by the Cusco Rotarians. That evening, they hosted a gala gathering where we had the opportunity to meet our planning counterparts. After a sound sleep at the Inca Hotel, that Sunday we traveled to Regional Hospital and started organizing and sorting through rooms filled to the ceiling with medical supplies. This was a massive task. We sorted and distributed supplies all week, but we had to be ready to start seeing patients on Monday and we were indeed ready.

 

At 8:00 a.m. on Monday morning we arrived at the Regional Hospital, Cusco. I was shocked to see hundreds and hundreds of people waiting to see the American doctors. As our bus approached, the people started to clap and cheer. As we got off the bus, the crowd of people parted so we could get through. This was such a moving experience.

 

In the course of five days, we saw close to 3000 needy, mostly indigent children and adults. Thirteen surgeons performed 138 successful surgical procedures that included hernias, gall bladders, oftalmology, hysterectomies, thyroid, varicose veins, thoracotomies, an abdominal aortic aneurysm and a large benign parotid tumor with facial invasion. This is just amazing! This mission really has impacted my life. I want to share two stories with you.

 

The first day I was working with Loyola University Medical Center’s Ophthalmologist, Dr. Ahmad (AJ). I have had no medical training. I am just a Rotarian that can’t say no. One patient AJ saw was a 13-year-old girl. The side of her face was being pushed out and her eye was being pushed out of the socket. From x-rays the mother had, AJ determined that this little girl had a tumor in her sinus. AJ could fix her eye but the Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor would have to remove the parotid tumor. After Chicago Heights Rotarian and Ingalls Hospital’s Dr. Patel and Loyola’s Dr. Sam Marzo, consulted, Dr. Marzo determined that he could remove the tumor. The following day AJ and Sam spent eight hours in surgery operating on this little girl. I am happy to share with you that the surgery was a success. She should be fine. What really moved me was the difference we were making. When AJ knew that they could perform the surgery, he looked at me and said, “Rick, we just saved a life.” This was something new to me. I have never been directly involved in saving someone’s life. Tears welled up in my eyes.

The other story has to deal with pediatrics. Dr. Jeff Blumenthal and Nurse Ann Scoigletti spent two days dealing with infant children in the clinic. The conditions were less than the standards we have in the United States. The experience left a lasting impression on Nurse Scoigletti. In her own words, she writes, “it’s been several months since I’ve been home and I can’t get the sights, smells, and sounds of the hospital in Cusco out of my mind. We went down to Peru on a noble, worthy mission. I am sure that in the opinion of those we served during our short week, we came back heroes.

After I got over two days of altitude sickness, an experience similar to a prolonged hangover without the pleasure of the “night before”, I went to work in the pediatric outpatient clinic. This place is not like anywhere we would bring our kids here in the US — not if you loved them.”

Nurse Ann continues, “those three rooms made our most impoverished clinic look state of the art! The exam rooms consist of a table, two chairs, and a torn up exam table. The floors, closets and windows are bare. There are no curtains or blinds to block the view of the curious adults and children waiting their turn outside the clinic doors. There are no disposable exam table covers or gowns for the children who need to undress. When parts of their bodies needed to be exposed for exam purposes, we had to strategically place our own bodies in front of theirs so that the onlookers from the windows and the hole in the door where the handle should have been cannot see.

Performing a physical was often a challenge. Equipment that we consider a standard, non-negotiable item is a luxury there. They had one blood pressure cuff, in one size only, for all of the kids. Stethoscopes could not be found except for those we brought. A standard issue flashlight was used to examine throats. The otoscope, the light source used to look in the ears, was shared among three rooms and was taped together. The cover for it, which is a disposable item in any country was wiped with alcohol and reused again and again. They had one glass mercury thermometer available, the kind that has been banned in the US due to its potential hazards. We had to bring our own gloves and there was only one sink in the entire clinic to wash our hands. There was nothing to suction a sick baby’s snotty nose, nothing to collect a quick urine sample for a child with a probable urinary track infection, and no rapid throat culture swabs to check for strep throat. These standard items that could be found in any pediatric office in the US just didn’t make the top of the “must have” list in Peru. Ironically, there may have been some sense to this, as we rarely saw a snotty nosed baby or a child with a urinary tract infection or a kid with strep throat. We saw worse, much worse.  

What came in through our doors was unbelievable. Some walked, but many were wheeled in or carried by their mothers. Many children with undiagnosed cerebral palsy and seizure disorders came to see us in these few days. Was it a result of poor prenatal care and unattended home births? The “American doctors”, as we were called, had to tell mothers that their children would never be able to walk, would never be like the other kids, and they may even die…soon. They would ask how children like theirs were cared for in the US and we would stutter while trying to find the words because we did not want to tell them that in America, even the sickest of our poorest children can get good medical care and have a chance at a decent life. Would it be right to tell them? It is not an option for them; it is not their reality. Kids with gastrointestinal parasites were also common. Clearly they needed to be treated, as the distress they were experiencing was disturbing. However, what was to prevent the same problem from recurring? The health department, if there is one, cannot eradicate the problem. I don’t think Hinckley and Schmidt deliver to Peru. It’s a vicious cycle without a good solution. 

Children and their families walked up to 18 hours to have the chance to see the “American doctors”. They waited for many more hours outside the hospital. Sometimes they slept out on the street overnight waiting for their turn. As many as we saw, more just kept coming. No matter what we did; what medicines we gave; what we told them (good or bad); they were always grateful. They always said “thank you”. Finally, when we absolutely could not stay any longer to see any more patients, we had to turn people away. It was explained to the mothers that the regular doctors would be available to them in the morning, but the mothers said, “They’re not equal”.

Why aren’t we equal? Isn’t health care and medicine a universal concept? Isn’t an exchange of ideas throughout the medical world the norm? Is it a problem of knowledge or resources? I would think it’s a combination of both, plus a multitude of other problems. I suppose that you cannot demand excellence, quality, and efficiency if you have never seen it and aren’t sure what it is. Here in the US, it is clear to all of the have-nots what the others have. In countries like Peru, where there is such a separation of services, where those who have look like working class people by US standards, the difference may be hard to see. I don’t know, I’m not a politician or a sociologist. I am not sure if our mission made a significant impact on the state of the world, but I do believe it made an impact on the lives of some very special people in a small city in Peru.”   

So many of the people just do not have access to medical care. This Medical Mission not only concentrated on inpatient/out patient care, but on education as well. With Peru’s Ministry of Health approved classes, training was provided for the “Barefoot Doctors” of the surrounding areas. San Antonio Abad University sponsored evening conferences, by US physicians, at the Medical College in a series of 16 lectures to medical students. We offered CPR training to 60 physicians, nurses and paramedics. Included in our group was a trained team of four optometrists and ten volunteers sponsored by the Illinois chapter of Volunteer Optometric Services for Humanities (VOSH). They brought their own equipments and supplies and examined about 1,200 individuals and provided over 850 pairs of glasses and 550 pairs of sunglasses.

 

Homewood Rotarians have worked with Dr. Chuquimia and the Cusco Rotary group since 1994. This trip gave us an opportunity to actually see projects we’ve funded. Cusco Rotarians provided a tour of these sites. Projects include funding training facilities in the areas of adult literacy and tailoring at the local jail and funding the building of bathrooms at the local grade school. We brought school supplies and messages from school children in Homewood Illinois to the students in Cusco Peru. The children entertained us at an outdoor ceremony before lunch.

 

The President of the Cusco Rotary Club, Oscar Delgado and its members invited us to their Rotary House for our weekly meeting. After a tour of their Rotary building, a fine lunch and meeting, we traveled back to the hospital and continued our Mission.

 

Not only did our Cusco Rotary friends coordinate and provide us with security, transportation, lunches, translators, scheduling and receptions, they organized sightseeing tours. A trip to Cusco would not be complete without a trip to Machu Picchu, a city built by the Incas in the 16^th century. With one day off, Orellana Tours took us on a day train trip through the lush tropical forest and mountains to the ancient Inca site.

 

Overall, the mission was a great success. We helped so many people and truly made a difference in their lives. I would strongly suggest every Rotarian go on a mission of some type, whether in your neighboring community or internationally. It gives you a better appreciation of what you have and you realize why you became involved in Rotary.

 

Mankind is our business and Rotarians make the difference.