GHLC Student International Medical Mission Trip Contact List

The GHLC has started a contact list for students in the process of planning a medical mission trip abroad. The list is intended to put students in contact with someone who can help them make an informed decision of whether a trip is right for them. Below is the link to the google doc. The list is organized by country and then by student. Where applicable, some also include the organization through which students traveled. Note, you must be logged into a SLU e-mail account to access the Google doc.

https://docs.google.com/a/slu.edu/document/d/15046Jd9VAfJpAeYg5FZoQwFNL_G8u_l3l8RbvzGE83E/edit?usp=sharing

If you have participated in a medical mission trip abroad, are willing to be contacted by your fellow medical students, and are not yet on our contact list, please shoot us an e-mail via the "Contact" link at the top right of this webpage.

GHLC's Kickoff Event - An Ice Cream Social

On Thursday, September 13th, SLU's Global Health Learning Community had our kick-off event to start the 2012-2013 academic year. In hopes of educating the new incoming first year students about the numerous opportunities in global health education, the GHLC board invited both students and faculty to converse over Ted's Drews ice cream, a Saint Louis classic.

Attending faculty included Dr Wilman Ortega (Internal Medicine) who organizes an annual summer trip to Antigua, Guatemala; Dr Timothy Rice (Internal Medicine, Pediatrics) who travels to the Democratic Republic of Congo and organizes international fourth year rotations; Dr. Sharon Frey (Internal Medicine, Infectious Disease), a vaccinologist, researcher in bio-terrorism and bio-warfare, and faculty adviser for GHLC; and Dr. Dean Trevathan (Dean for the School of Public Health).

Medical / Clinic days

The last 4 days of the trip were clinic days. The first day we visited a different indigenous community and set up a clinic in their gathering place/church. This was a really cool experience because they would describe their medical problems in such a different way than we are used to. Like to say they were having pain somewhere they would sometimes describe it as that body part "falling asleep." They used a lot of metaphors. It was kind of confusing at first to understand what was wrong with them, but with patience we were able to figure it out. Again we had to have 2 translators, one from their indigenous language and another into Spanish which made understanding the metaphors even more difficult. Here we saw a lot of parasites, scabies, and I got to even see my first indirect inguinal hernia. It was on a man and he even allowed me to exam him which apparently was a big deal for this community because it has taken them a while to get warmed up to Global Brigades. That made me feel good that I made him feel comfortable and the whole day was a success in terms of medical care and building a stronger relationship with this community.

The last 3 days we went to another Latin community and set up the clinic in their school. This was a little bit easier because they all spoke Spanish and were more accustomed to medical care and our medical terms (I think they have clinics here every couple of weeks). Dr. Lyons, one of the pediatric physicians with us, showed me how to do a newborn exam which was really exciting for me. Again we saw a lot of parasites and scabies on the kids. We also saw 2 cases of Leishmaniasis. Before we got to Panama Dr. Michelfelder who has done like 16 trips like this had us all pick common diseases in the area and do just a short presentation on them so we could know what to look for. I wasn't too excited to be doing work the day after school ended, but really this was SO helpful. Not only was it a good review, but we also had a Panamanian doctor so he was able to tell us if the statistics we found were actually relevant in his practice and what he knew. That was one of my favorite parts of the trip as well.

Exploring Panama

In between the public health and medical portions of the trip we had 2 days to explore some of the communities in the area and get all of our meds ready for the upcoming clinic days.

A picture of the group after our hike up a small "mountain" to get an aerial view of the Embera village below. This is one of the indigenous tribes in this area of Panama.

The Embera village... the people recently moved their homes to be closer to the only road that goes through this part of Panama called the Panamanian highway. Because of this some of their farms are 2-3 miles away from where they live. That's a long commute to work on foot.

Public health/Building the latrines

The first part of our trip we worked with 3 families in a Latin community called Platania to help them build compost latrines. A latrine is basically an outhouse that the family can use as a bathroom but is also cool because it eventually makes fertilizer for their land. A big problem in Panama is sanitation. Most of these families before this project started were just using pit latrines. This is basically just a hole in the ground. The problem is that it rains everyday in Panama and so the pit latrines would constantly overflow causing a huge mess and lots of sanitation issues. (Some of the poorer parts of the communities that couldn't afford pit latrines would just have to go in the woods or the river which is obviously a way bigger issue).

Global Brigades started this project in this community by gathering people at town meetings and really getting them excited to have these latrines. The people who showed interest by attending all of the meetings but also had additional funds to pay for supplies would be able to get a latrine. The family I was assigned was the house of Senor Domingo. His wife was actually chosen to be the leader of the Platania latrine committee which was really cool because we knew that our hard work would actually get put to use!

My family was absolutely amazing and so hospitable. Senor Domingo was there with us all day every day helping out and his wife and daughters were so sweet. Senora Domingo brought us each a glass of soda at lunch on the first day which we ate on their front porch. One of the daughters and her aunt made us these traditional Panamanian sugar and fruit ice pops that were absolutely delicious and a great break to the heat. They were a long three days and a lot of work, but it was so rewarding to make such a big difference for this sweet family.

Living Conditions

We arrived at the Panama airport and it was nothing what I expected it to look like. There were skyscrapers everywhere, it felt like I was in Chicago. As soon as we found our group and did the awkward first introductions we were quickly shipped from this metropolitan city three hours east to one of the poorest parts of the country. We arrived at our "hotel" and I knew that in for a long 10 days ahead of me. (I took these photos at night the last day before we left so they are a little dark).



A picture from the back of the building which was completely open up the rain forest behind us. You can see us playing with one of the balloons that we handled out to the kids during the clinic days.



The stairs up to our bedroom on the right.

Panama - Jesuit Medical Collaborative 2012

This summer I participated in a global health project called the Jesuit Medical Collaborative. It was actually a brand new project started this year through Loyola's School of Medicine in Chicago. The goal was to work with all of the Jesuit medical schools in the Midwest area on a common global health project. We were able to get 2 students from here at SLU, 3 students from Creighton, and 5 students and 3 physicians from Loyola as well as the global health director Ginny from Loyola. The project was set up through Global Medical Brigades who recently started work in Panama and it was split up into public health and medical portions. We spent the first 3 days building latrines (basically an outhouse) for 3 of the families in one of the Latin communities. We then took 2 days in between to do some hiking in the rain forest and visiting with various indigenous communities in the area. The last 4 days we set up clinics first in the church of an indigenous community and then in a school for a Latin community. Overall the trip was 10 days long which was great for me because this was the first global health trip I had ever done and I wasn't sure how I would like it. Needless to say it was one of the best experiences of my life.

Mission to Panama

Sponsor	Virginia McCarthy	Contact	Virginia McCarthy e: vmccarthy@lumc.edu p: 708-216-6318
Location	Kuna Yala, Panama
Mission	We'll be partnering with Global Brigades, an international, non-profit, health and sustainable development organization near Kuna Yala, Panama. We'll be setting up a mobile clinic where in one of the communities during the days in which we provide medical and dental consultations and treatments, and a few days to experience some different projects through our Environmental and Public Health programs. The latter usually included pilas (a water storage unit), latrines, eco-stoves, and concrete floors for houses in Honduras, so the projects in our communities in Panama are probably similar. As far as our methods of operation, our medical services are free and we have a referral system for patients who need continued care, a medical records system (OpenMRS)for data collection and patient continuity, and we also train community health workers through our Guardianes de Salud program. These volunteers are community members who live in the villages we serve that we train and equip withresources they'll need to provide basic care and record keeping. As for the Public Health projects, the money comes from both a community investment fund through student donation and the buy-in and partnership of the community members themselves.
Duration and Time	Irregular  1 week
Estimated Cost	$1500-$1800
Field of Practice	Pediatrics
Restrictions	Open to all students, regardless of year of study.