Clinic Day

The first part of our group arrives at Un Canto a la Vida Hospital at 8:30 AM. There are former patients waiting in the parking lot for the bus to unload, including Miriam. CAMTA surgeons replaced her hips eight and seven years ago, and she returns every year to greet the team and express her gratitude. As we get off the bus, Miriam and her mother hug every team member, several times. They give us each a hand-made gift. Another man proudly shows off his young son. CAMTA fixed the boy’s club feet when he was four years old and the dad wanted us to see how well he could walk now.

Miriam greets Nurse Eileen Guilfoyle

And then we enter the hospital. There are over 100 people waiting for us – sitting in chairs and wheel chairs, standing with crutches and walkers along the walls, holding babies and small children, and often carrying bigger kids who are unable to walk. There are young adults, elderly people, families, and couples. Few people have come alone.  They break into enthusiastic applause as the team walks in – an overwhelming outpouring of appreciation and hope. We slowly make our way through the crowd, smiling and waving, and returning the  “holas” and “buenos dias’”. We are touched and humbled by their greetings.

Applause when the CAMTA team arrives

Once through the waiting area, we move quickly to our area of the hospital to set up Adult and Pediatric Clinics. This is an amazing exercise of military precision. Over 100 bags, the ones we’ve brought plus ones that were left here last year, are sorted and unpacked, their contents inventoried and set up. Most people have prescribed jobs and priorities, but everyone pitches in when a mountain of water bottles needs to be relocated, or heavy equipment moved to another floor.

The CAMTA team unpacks the bins and bags, and set up the various areas that will be “home” for the next two weeks. Tables are set up in the Administration area to register every patient, rooms are arranged for the general practitioners, anesthetists, surgeons and residents and nurses to assess the patients. Operating Room, Recovery Room and Wards are organized, medications and surgical and equipment are sorted and stored and a physiotherapy pre-op training area is established.

By the time the second bus full of volunteers arrives at 10:30AM, the Clinics, where the patients will be assessed, are set up and ready to begin processing patients.

IT specialist Jim Raso inputs info with the help of Yosmari, a local interpreter

One of the first patients to be assessed is Mila, a 10-day old baby boy with bilateral club feet. Dr. Sumit Gupta examines the little guy, while a translator relays the surgeon’s questions to Mila’s young parents. With the help of a Spanish translator, the casting procedure is explained to them and then Dr. Gupta applies the first of a series of casts that will gradually begin to straighten Mila’s feet over the week.

Dr. Gupta holds Mila after his assessment

Every time one of us walks through the patient waiting areas, people clutching x-rays and files greet me with smiles and “buenas dias” – there is anxiety and hope in every face. CAMTA is, for many of these people, the last chance they have for surgical treatment of their orthopedic problems. These families cannot afford private medical care. They have heard of CAMTA through radio commercials, social workers, at church and word of mouth. Many have traveled days to get to the Clinic, and often whole villages have pooled their resources to send a person to CAMTA.

Sadly, not everyone can be helped. Some patients have existing conditions that make surgery too risky. Other cases are too complex for the time and facilities available to us. Young children often need time to grow and develop before surgery is advisable. But there are also tears of joy and relief when a family is told that their loved one will have surgery.

At the end of the day, the team will have compiled a list of surgeries for the week, which may spill over into next week.

It’s been a long day. By 7PM the last patien has been seen

Once the day is done we clear everything out of the main floor – all the equipment we set up this morning is taken back upstairs out and the area we have used today will be returned to regular hospital use tomorrow.