Medications for AHMEN-CHIMES Mission to La Moskitia

When you go to a pharmacy to fill a prescription written by your health care provider, it's a routine.  The doctor has given you a piece of paper with the name of the medication and its strength, how often you are to take it, and the amount for the pharmacist to give you.  Simple.  The only real decision is where you choose the get the prescription filled.  Every busy street corner has a drug store, sometimes "mom and pop" shops where you've known the man behind the counter for years and sometime a mega-store where you can buy anything from frozen foods to auto parts while they count out your pills.  If you take it to one store the cost may be $4.00, at another the same medication will cost more.  You pay with cash, or check or  credit card or just a co-pay, and your out the door and on your way to feeling better.

A healthy child in Limonales

  Imagine now that you live in a village on the beach in eastern Honduras or 40 miles up a river in the rain forest,  and your child is ill.  Something common in that area, like worms or malaria or asthma.  You'd take her to the doctor, right?   First, the scenario is rather unrealistic in the first place.   There is no doctor in the village to have visited, and if there was, you probably didn't have the few dollars he would charge for his consultation.  So, lets make believe that you did see the doctor.  He writes a prescription just like in the U.S.  Now what?  If you are lucky enough to live in or near a village with a National Health Care facility, you might be able to get the medication there almost for free.  That is if they have any medicine.  There are pharmacies in Honduras and you can buy any medication you want, even without a prescription.  If you are vomiting you can buy something to stop it.... not in a neat pill bottle, but by the single pill.  All for cash.  No money.... no medicine.  If the doctor you saw prescribes an antibiotic for Susie's infection, you have to find someone that is selling it, and you must be able to afford it.  

Dr. Ben Coplan examines a child in Ciriboya

 You make the long trip to a pharmacy .  You have brought all the cash you could scrape together and you are hoping you can afford what the doctor says your child needs.  You had enough money and you go back to you village and give the medicine to your child.  All is well.  Imagine if any one of these steps was impossible to accomplish.  You pray your child gets better in time.

There are few places where people can go to be treated at no cost and receive free medication.  The hospital in Ciriboya is one of note, as is the clinic in Belaire.  There are more places where the patient is charged a token fee which is usually overlooked.  The question of medication availability still is a major hurdle to good and consistent health care.
 
As we plan our mission trip to La Moskitia in April, we receive word that there are no medicines at the Garifuna hospital in Ciriboya.  Despite 24 hour physician coverage, there is no medication there to treat illness.  Besides acquiring enough medications to treat the hundreds of patients we will see in our clinics in La Moskita, AHMEN and CHIMES have taken on the added burden of helping to stock the pharmacies at Ciriboya and several other health care facilities for the poor in Honduras.   This requires a phenomenal amount of money to buy all the medicines.  What is not purchased outright is obtained at reduced cost from several faith based organizations.  Sometimes, we are lucky enough to receive donations from large companies and foundations, but it requires much work applying for grants and filling out applications.  This year we were blessed with some rather large cash donations from friends of AHMEN and CHIMES.  Selecting, and paying for, all the medications for a mission trip is a major undertaking. We bring many thousands of dollars of medication to Honduras yearly.  All of it is freely given to the poor and to those that care for the poor.

A portion of our pharmacy in a classroom in La Marias

The end result is that this April we will bring to Honduras roughly three to four  times the amount of medications we expect to use in our clinics.  The rest will be give to local health care facilities to continue free care after we leave.

Back down the Rio Plátano from Las Marias

AHMEN/CHIMES Mission to La Moskitia

Plans for the AHMEN/CHIMES mission to La Moskitia are coming together nicely.  Our Team is just about completely chosen. Here is the current roster of Americans .  This team was put together with the assistance of the folks at UMVIM

Bruce McFadden,  Physician Assistant,   Orthopedics and Emergency medicine  5 trips to Honduras, missions to Haiti and Uganda  Co-team-leader, Alabama

Bud McKinney,  Retired sheet metal worker.  Knows about everything you need to know about getting it done in HN.  ~20 trips to HN  Co-team-leader, California

Jesus Cacho,  Mental health worker and soon to be nursing student,   From HN.  Knows everyone in eastern HN and everything that Bud doesn't know.  CA

LaWinfred Shack,  Therapeutic masseur, Second trip to HN.  The Muscle of the group.  Memphis, TN

Jean Ivey,   DSN, CRNP, Pediatric Nurse Practitioner and clinical professor.  UAB,  Birmingham, Alabama

"Sug" Kaiser, RN, Dialysis nurse, several medical mission trips to central and south America, SC

Pat Farley, LPN, Retired Nurse, Currently on a mission to East Africa, VA

Wes Wallace, MD  ER physician, Numerous mission trips, Chapel Hill, NC

Tom Arnold, MD  ER physician, 17 missions to Honduras, Birmingham, AL

We are acquiring our large supply of needed medications.  Some will be shipped in advance to La Ceiba in the Container.  The rest will be brought with us.  A large amount will be brought by the members from CHIMES including dental equipment and supplies.  Again this year, we will donate significant amounts of medicine and supplies to the Ciriboya Hospital and to the Bayan Hospital in Palacios.

Miskito child in Limonales, Gracias a Dios

UMVIM Broadcast Priority Email a Great Help

In late April a combined AHMEN/CHIMES medical mission will be heading to Honduras.  We will be going to the area known as the Mosquito Coast, or La Moskitia.  Located in the Rio Plátano Biosphere, the largest are of rain forest out the Amazon, it is far from the areas visited by most mission teams.  This area, in the Department de Gracias a Dios, is the home to many indigenous peoples,  Besides the Garifuna, there are Miskito and Pech Indians, as well as Ladinos.

Travel times and distances are extreme.  We run out of "road" about ten hours east of La Ceiba, and we still have hours in a large canoe to get to some of the villages we will visit.  Because of the travel involved, this has to be longer than the average AHMEN trip.  We will be in-country thirteen days,  Not many people can leave their lives in the States and disappear into the rain forest for two weeks.

To add needed medical personnel to our roster, I contacted Cristin Farrington at UMVIM to see if she had any leads to medical personnel seeking a challenging mission experience.  Soon thereafter, a Priority broadcast email went out to everyone on the UMVIM mailing list.  Later that day, I started to get phone calls from people offering their services.  Because of all the calls, I actually had to change my voice mail message to direct respondents send me an email as I was getting "troubling" looks from my employer at work.

After looking closely at every respondent's credentials and experience, came the difficult choice.  This being an entirely medical mission, with limited transportation and lodging availability, we were forced to pick those that could offer the most for our mission.   It really bothered me to say no to those willing to help Honduras.

As a result of the UMVIM email, we were able to strengthen our team with the addition of a physician, at least two nurses and most likely a pharmacist.

Email to the Belaire Team from Hugh Guffey

This is follow-up note from Guffey to all the members of Team Belaire.  It gives some details about the mission that may be of interest to all.

................................................................................

Good Afternoon Team Belaire.

Thanks to everyone for making this a successful mission trip. To be able to see so many medical patients (900+) amongst the crush of people at the clinic was truly a miracle. The eye clinic examined around 275 total people and despite reoccurring difficulties with the Retinomax, we were able to fit around 100 pairs of used RX glasses. We saw several cases where individuals who could not even see the top line on our charts went away with glasses seeing at least 20/32 with a couple seeing 20/20. Mary had similar results with the near vision glasses. Most importantly, Russ came away with a wad of first time confessions of faith and re-commitments. Well done guys.

Everyone worked hard, but I think that the stars for the week had to have been Peggy for negotiating access to the SHN food packets, Carlos for adding a much needed kinder tone to our eye glass clinic, and Delmer for his soft spoken manner and his expertise. God’s hand was upon us all. Of course, we were all so very blessed by the wonderful Honduran people. What a great opportunity to work with Evelyn’s girls, the farm staff, the dorm girls, and so many more. And special thanks to Evelyn and Jose for all that they do, for us and for their “neighbors.”  

Also if you have not already done so, please go to the blog at http://ahmen-honduras.blogspot.com/ and read Delmer’s day by day posting of his impressions of the Belaire experience.

Amor en Cristo,

guf

Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.
Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.
Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.
Painful moments, TRUST GOD.
Every moment, THANK GOD.

Delmer Montoya; from home in El Progresso

This is Delmer's first email concerning his experiences in Belaire with the AHMEN. 

From El Progresso, Honduras 2/5/11

Bruce;

Im at home now, today i wake up very early thinking that i was at Belaire. 

Let me tell you that it was a great experience for me, talking with each one of 

the group i had learned a lot. Working with the nurses i had learned some new techniques

to do some procedures more easy. All of them has a lot o knowledge accumulated over

time have acquired. It was amazing because every day i learned new interesting things.

Furthermore i was immerse in an environment where people only speaks english, and even at

the beginning was very hard to try to understand, with the days it was more easy. I practiced

the language a lot and that's something that you cannot to do in Honduras commonly, because even 

some people can to speak English, nobody likes to do it.

A few days was enough to create a friendship, i hope to be in touch by email with them.

The worst situation in Belaire its showed at Berlin´s zone, there is a lot of children with Malnutrition

and their complications. Was so sad to see children with 6 years old who looks like they has 3. Evelyn relief a lot of people over the zone with health care and another things, but i think that the ignorance the biggest problem. 

For example you can give them medicine against parasites and you can tell them that they have to

drink boiled  or chlorinated water, but if they dont do it, all the effort will no have any effect. And as you know thats a cycle.

Thats why i think that there should to be an agreement and to tell them, if you wanna have some support you should to maintain clean your children and your environment and to boil the water too.  We will come here eventually to take some sample of your water and to see the children to check if you are doing your part.  If you fulfill your commitment then you will maintain your benefits.. 

Definitely  FUNGUS is the most common disease in all the population, it could be because the humidity in the enviroment

its always high. Even the mission and Evelyn has medication against fungus it wasn't  enough.

Another common disease was anxiety disorder and we didn't have nothing against it. 

Another common disease was anxiety disorder and we didn't have nothing against it.  

I agree that postings data and emails from the brigades, it can show the work that AHMEN its doing.

Perhaps the new AHMENS group can send more emails to you too.

Actually i have a lot of things in mind, and im not sure what will i be doing during the next months,

Im thinking about getting in English school, to take a certified about scientific investigation at the university 

during 4 months, and i want to take a course about neonatal first aid.

 

I have some job proposal, but i need some requirements first( to have my diploma in my hands,

approve the  tittle, ceremony for registration in the Medical College of Honduras). So while it happen i don't want to be losing my time.

I can to say that i enjoyed so much the mission, and if I'm not busy, of course i would like to go with

AHMEN groups again.  I have some friends that could be interested in to be a volunteer too, but some of them things that the duration of the missions is too long.

For more info about Belaire, you can ge in at: http://www.projecthondurasinternational.org/projecthondurasinternational/Home.html

Its a page designed by Evelyn Castellar, there are some interesting pictures.

Have a nice day

Delmer

Last Day in Belaire

 Today was the last day in Belaire for this AHMEN medical  team.  Soon everyone will be back in their homes in the U.S., or in Delmer's case, in El Progresso, Honduras.

I imagine  it will take him a few days to sort out all his feelings and put order to his experiences.  I look forward to his insights.

From Belaire 2/3/11

Bruce,
 Today we finished our medical brigade officially, You dont have an idea how many people
came from far away to get health care.

During the afternoon we went to Berlin, a community over the mountains forgotten for everybody.
Was amazing to go there, but was very sad too when i saw the reality of these people living there.
Malnutrition is without any doubt the biggest problem in Berlin, almost all the children are
in a severe condition. Bad conditions on style life joined with economic problems produce this
kind of  situations. I think that with a little bit of education things could change at Berlin.
Ill attach some pictures....

We will be  leaving from Belaire tomorrow but all the team has the feeling that we offer to this community a little bit of us.

Have a nice night.

Delmer

These are pictures taken in the Berlin, a community not too far from Belaire.  If you would like to make a donation to AHMEN go to
                                         www.honduranmissions.com


A tax deductible contribution will help provide medication for AHMEN's medical mission teams.  If you would like to join a mission team to Honduras we can always use another hand and heart and soul.

Additional Email from Belaire

From Belaire 2/3/11

All this week the weather has been excellent, the sun has been shinning and the enviroment its great.
 
Yesterday we saw some different kinds of diseases,
For example came an old man with problems in his nose, the septum was destroyed, perhaps could be cancer.
 
We saw a women with an ectopic pregnancy, childrens with impetigo, malnutrition, parasites, a lot of people with fungus
a girl with a big burn over the whole torax and neck and we toke off nails .
 
we have been having a good time, its a shame that our time in here is finishing, all of us are so glad to be in Belaire,
all the team works hard and everybody loves to do it.

Today we gonna go to _Berlin, its a very poor community in the mountains, will be an interesting trip.

I'll write more at night.

Blessings

Delmer

Brief messages and pictures from the Belaire Medical Mission Team

I've received a couple of brief messages from Delmer Montoya with the AHMEN medical mission team in Belaire.  Things are apparently busy there and they are caring for many patients.  Delmer included a few pictures which I've posted here without explanation or captions.

 From Belaire 2/2/11

Today was a great day, we saw a lot of patients with differents kind of diseases.
Times runs so fast and our time in here is finishing.

I'll attach some pictures.....

Guffeys say hello to everyone..

 Have a nice one

Delmer

From Belaire, Honduras 2/1/11

Yesterday was a day off, Carlos and I went with Evelyn and Jose to their house in Balfate,
its a wonderful place, we had a good time. Today we will start to work again. l will attach some pictures that i taken, but
there is some more pictures that i have to take yet.

I putted the blog direction adress that you sent to my on the browser, but it says that it doesnt exist.

The team is very good, everybody works constantly, its energizing.

Have a nice day

Delmer


Here are a few photos of  AHMEN medical team members in Belaire.  

Some of these last pictures are quite graphic and depict the realities of life in some areas of rural Honduras..  What would you do if your child looked like this and there was no doctor a few minutes away, and no money for medication. These pictures do not indicate extreme cases by any means.  In many situations, this is the norm.

Visit Alabama Honduras Medical Education Network and make a donation to help continue our work in Honduras.

www.honduranmissions.com