Once upon a time in Mexico
Posted on January 17, 2008
The man raised his enlarged foot for the student medical team to examine. Because of an infection below the skin, he has developed a disease called Mycetoma, which looks similar to elephantiasis. He came for years to the visiting health clinics in rural areas of Mexico to receive antibiotics. His doctor suggested amputation, but the man couldn’t because he needed to work.
This was just one of the hundreds of patients that nine JMU students met during a medical service trip to Jaumave, a city in northern central Mexico. From Dec. 26 to Jan. 6, they joined four students from other universities through the organization International Service Learning. The team worked with Dr. Adrian Mendoza, a licensed physician in Mexico. The cost of the trip was $1,500 plus airfare, and several students in the group fundraised in different ways, such as with their local doctor’s offices.
“This reaffirmed that I want to do something with medicine,” senior Phil Carron, a pre-med biology major, said. “This trip opened my eyes and mostly changed my ideas of international healthcare. It emphasizes how different people live.”
The students rode in a van, filled with donated pharmaceutical supplies, down dusty roads to rural towns. They drove past mud huts and cacti until they reached a church or community center, the site of the medical clinic for the day. At each of the five clinics, they set up areas for registration, triage and vitals and pharmacy.
Since most did not have previous hands-on medical experience, Mendoza taught them basic skills on the first day. This included how to check patients’ vital signs, including blood pressure and heart rate.
“We learned pretty much by trial and error,” Carron said. “We’d try it again if we couldn’t do it the first time, like reading the blood pressure cuff. Just because we’re not completely trusting in our own capabilities yet we’d ask for help a lot.”
Mendoza also taught the students about the most frequent ailments in Mexico. Many people had parasites because they lived closely with their animals. Colds and bronchitis were also common because it was winter. Other diseases included scabies, lice and herpes.
“For the first patient you’re kind of nervous, but once you keep doing it, it gets easier,” Gina Cavallo, a sophomore health science and pre-med student, said. “They were so patient, too. Even if they had numb fingers from holding their arms out, they’d keep waiting.”
Cavallo found the hands on learning experience reaffirming to her studies.
“At school, you don’t get patient interaction in your classes,” she said. “It was a nice break to actually help people. It also gives you motivation to do well in your classes.”
The group estimated they saw between 25 to 40 patients at each clinic. Their ages varied from a seven-month-old baby to a 97-year-old woman.
“I loved seeing how happy everyone was when we helped them,” junior Hilary Jacobson, a pre-PA biotechnology major, said. “The kids came to get toothbrushes and toothpaste and vitamins, and you would have thought those were the biggest things on their Christmas lists because they were so excited.”
Cavallo said she also enjoyed helping out.
“All the kids were really cute,” she said. “We gave them vitamins, and even though it says to take one a day for fifteen days, they kept popping them in their mouths like candy, so we tried to explain to them not to.”
One of the biggest challenges the group faced was the communication barrier. Only one participant was fluent in Spanish, while the rest either knew small amounts or none at all. Since Mendoza is proficient in both English and Spanish, the students were able to learn simple phrases, especially medical terms.
“I learned that communication is the biggest, [most] important, aspect of medicine, not necessarily the treatment,” Carron said. “I always tried to make my patients laugh. I feel that if they like you, they’ll be patient and sit calmly even if they don’t understand.”
Senior Kunal Patel, a pre-med chemistry major, was able to learn medical phrases in Spanish because they were repeated over and over. He said that fortunately, the patients understood their difficulties with the language.
“I liked interacting with all the people,” Patel said. “They were so nice. I didn’t actually know what to expect before I got there. I also wanted to learn more about them, but because of the language barrier, I could only really ask superficial questions. Luckily none were really frustrated with us.”
Cavallo attributes this sense of patience to the different culture. Coming from outside New York City, she said that being in such a remote area was a big culture shock for her.
“One girl was 17 and had a miscarriage, but she was only concerned about how soon she could get pregnant again,” she said. “It’s just a different world there. This makes you more grateful for what you have and changes you, especially coming back here to JMU where so many of us are fortunate.”
Before the trip’s organizational meetings, none of the JMU students knew each other. However, they quickly formed a close-knit team. Besides working together at the clinics, they spent time together playing card games at the small hotel in the evenings. They also spent a day swimming in a lagoon. Another cultural experience they shared was eating authentic Mexican food, though Carron said they quickly tired of the distinct corn tortillas.
“We had an awesome group,” Cavallo said. “JMU students are so outgoing and are willing to make change. We’re actually motivated and here for all the right reasons.”
“JMU has a special dynamic,” Jacobson added. “Other groups are a little more reserved, and some already had cliques.”
Both Cavallo and Jacobson plan to participate in other medical service trips because of this experience.
“To help someone, it’s unreal,” Cavallo said. “It’s a rush to help someone in a place with poverty that otherwise wouldn’t get this help.”
