Mobile Clinic Day

Saturday the 16th was designated as mobile clinic day. Seven doctors (neurosurgeons, orthopaedists, vascular surgeons, etc.) participated, along with many nurses and non-medical people, including translators. A bus picked us up at the guest house, drove for about 45 minutes to the periphery of the city, and deposited us at a local church in a poor neighborhood. The church house was a rather large structure built out of mud with a tin roof and gravel-rock floor. Tables, each with a bare-bulb lamp, were set up around the periphery of the interior. It was quite dark in the building as there were no windows. Some of our group would triage the patients outside, and a hostess would direct them to the docs at the various tables. We saw over 400 patients and prescribed medications after the most primitive of diagnostic techniques. These were poor people with no financial means to obtain medical care. I gained a new perspective on the patients in this doctor/patients relationship. These folks were struggling to survive from one day to the next. They didn’t ask for my medical credentials or certifications. In their world, that was a meaningless abstraction. To these folks the important thing was that someone was there to care for them, whether it met the “standard of care” or not. They were appreciative. It was a tiring day. Reflecting on the bus ride home I had a feeling of disappointment in that we did not provide the latest and best diagnostic and therapeutic medicine; however, I was reaffirmed knowing this group of volunteers had offered the fundamental tenet of medicine, that of comforting and caring for your patient and fellow man. (See slideshow in sidebar.)

-- Don