Wearing Different Hats in Guatemala

The latest COTA team is finished and was hugely successful by every measure: we saw over 2,600 clinic patients, did 113 surgeries and filled over 5,000 free prescriptions in less than a week. All of our volunteers arrived home safely (thankfully just before the recent storm) and now is our time for reflection. As always, we think back to how we performed, wonder how we can improve and already look forward to next year. 

While volunteering for a Children of the Americas team we often find ourselves working in very different roles than we do in our "real" jobs back home. Our volunteers take the word team seriously; whatever it takes to provide the best quality medical care to a very large number of patients in a short week gets done, whether the task at hand is something we usually do or not. It gets somewhat comical to see ourselves in unusual roles. Here are some of the tongue-in-cheek job descriptions we acquire while in Guatemala. 
The smiles are not a job requirement; they come naturally from being happy for the privilege to work with such a great group of people and patients.

 

Staff Nutritionists  
(also known as volunteers from Kentucky and former Peace Corp worker)

Medical Staff Liaison 
(COTA volunteer who helped Guatemalan doctor with emergency patient)

Patient Intake Coordinators 
(Guatemalan volunteer and EMT from West Virginia)

Patient Ombudsman 
 (anesthesiologist from Denver)

Multicultural Staff Liaisons
 (also known as Guatemalan and American pediatric nurses)

Dental Tech
 (retired nurse from KY)

Clinic Providers 
(AKA pediatric cardiologist and hospital CFO)

Parent Educator 
(COTA RN from Florida)

Transportation Specialists 
(COTA volunteers helping however they can)

International Goodwill Ambassadors 
(COTA medical volunteers)

No title needed here: A happy post-op patient and his grateful father

There is Always One

Children of the Americas has traveled to Guatemala for annual medical/surgical/dental and prosthetics teams for over twenty years. Many of our administrative staff volunteers are there now, preparing for our upcoming team in San Benito starting next Saturday when we will meet over a thousand patients, and out of those, we will potentially donate surgery to well over one hundred women and children. While working in the Guatemalan hospitals, our nurses, who staff our patients 24/7 during the week we are there, frequently become close to a particular patient. In our minds, this patient, whoever it is, is the one we were meant to be in Guatemala for. Perhaps it is our way of attaching meaning to our week of volunteering; a difficult but rewarding time of being outside of our comfort zone while trying to make the world of health care a better one for our patients. 
In 2012, baby Steven was "the one."

Maybe it was his eyes...big and brown and laced with eyelashes that quickly won him the title of Snuffleupagus, the Sesame Street character of days gone by. Or it could have been his mother, who had gone through months of hospitalizations with her baby, losing sleep, adequate nutrition and time with her family while making it all seem much easier than it was. Her faith was steadfast, her parenting exemplary and she spent many hours helping other mothers on the ward who had babies just as sick as hers was.

We left the hospital six days later, inspired and in awe of her strength.Before departing, COTA nurse Kelley filled a bag with infant vitamins, food for his mother, formula for Steven, Tylenol, clothing and many hugs to get Steven's mother through the upcoming months. Nursing student Erin collected the bib you see in the photo, as well as some donated baby quilts. Jennifer gave some funds to keep Steven's mother fed while he was hospitalized. Dr. Cottrill, our pediatric cardiologist, evaluated Steven's health care needs. 

 Simone, our ultrasound volunteer, scanned his kidneys to determine the cause of his chronic infections. He wasn't one of our COTA patients (he had been hospitalized for weeks before we came), but he quickly became "our" baby. Many hands and hearts came together for this little one.
After leaving Guatemala, we kept up with Steven and his mother. Some of our nurses sent money to his family to cover the cost of more hospitalizations and formula that the family couldn't afford. We celebrated his first steps and were saddened by the news when Steven was diagnosed with a chronic lifelong illness. 

We recently received this photo of Steven, who is now three years old and thriving thanks to dedicated and determined parents. We are not sure who the special patient we are meant to be in Guatemala for will be this year, but we do know that our COTA nurses, support staff and doctors will make each patient feel like they are the one we were meant to be in Guatemala for this year.