The below is ‘a report from the field’ from WUMC Medical Mission Team Leader Terri Morgan, offering a lens into the on-going work of the Carolina-Honduras Health Foundation, delivering urgently needed medical care to a rural swath of Honduras (one of the poorest nations in the Western Hemisphere). The Team returned on Sunday, February 16.
Friends,
This little one in the picture is Noe Rodriguez, five years old. Noe was a motorcycle passenger with a relative who had an accident on a dangerous road nearby while we were eating dinner Sunday night on our arrival. When they showed up around 7:45PM, we at first didn’t hear them due to the fabulous, but loud, music from the church service next door.
Our team includes two ER docs, as well as a Honduran med student (Rafael) who just finished a pediatric rotation and a young nurse who is without peer. Our pharmacist (my team co-leader) actually wound up being the one to stabilize Noe’s head as they got him on a backboard. He was with us for about fifty minutes, during which he got a thorough exam, an IV and an ultrasound via Dr. Wes’ phone. Mercifully, the bleeding from his head finally slowed, and we carried the backboard stretcher out to a very nice truck with a huge back seat (a rarity in these parts!).
My small part was to call Peggy Hook back in Virginia and start the referral process for his future care. Noe made it to Tocoa’s public hospital last night and we hear he is still stable today. He will probably be moved on to San Pedro Sula by ambulance later today.
So, today we suffer the first-travel-day exhaustion, the road, the disrupted dinner, the struggle to clearly understand our patients, the threat of mosquito-born illnesses – but clearly, we were supposed to be here last night for Noe!
It took half the team to work on this patient; the other half cleared the table and started our bag lunches for today. Soon we will be on the road to my beloved village of Icoteas. The road is appalling, but everything is so green and beautiful. Morning glories everywhere.
WUMC Global Outreach provided the funding for Rafael, the med student, and one of our church members donated the funds which paid for Noe’s hospital travel last night. Still another paid for the rice and beans we’re picking up in Icoteas today. All of it really, really makes a difference.
I miss all of you.
Terri Morgan