Kaiser Redwood City MD, others bring health care to Guatemala

Twelve Kaiser Permanente Northern California doctors, nurses, medical technicians and physical therapists spent a busy and humbling week in March, caring for Guatemala’s poorest and neediest citizens in the remote Mayan Highlands. Their patients traveled by foot, by truck, and bus over dusty mountain roads to get to the make-shift clinic where the Kaiser Permanente volunteers were working as part of a Faith in Practice health team.

“We provide hope and healing in return for the grace and gratitude of the Guatemalan people,” said Dr. Sarah Beekley, a pediatrician at the Kaiser Permanente Redwood City Medical Center. “At the end of the day we are the ones who feel blessed.”

Dr. Beekley and several Kaiser Permanente caregivers have been making the trip for years, as part of “Faith in Practice,” an ecumenical Christian group based in Texas. It has been serving the health needs of Guatemala’s citizens for more than 25 years by assembling groups of medical volunteers from the U.S. and worldwide to travel there to help. This year’s Kaiser Permanente team, whose members paid their own way to get to Guatemala, was the biggest yet for the group.

Faith In Practice professionals work with local volunteers who find patients and help run the week-long clinics in the Mayan Highlands, Dr. Beekley said.

Dr. Beekley said the need is great: the Guatemalan health care system is broken. Even when the municipal hospitals are open the patients must provide their own medications, tests, and supplies. The rate of chronic malnutrition here is the 4th worst in the world and 75 percent of the indigenous population live below the poverty line.

“I’ve made the journey for nine years,” said Dr. Hilary Bartels, an emergency physician at the Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa Medical Center, “because volunteering in Guatemala is something that is so refreshing, renewing and brings a sense of indescribable gratitude.”

The team set up their clinics in the department of Totonicapán, at the 8,000-foot level of the Sierra Madre in Guatemala. Much of the economy is textiles, made by home artisans, and wheat or maize farming. Many of the younger residents immigrated to the United States long ago, and now send home money home to relatives in Totonicapán

“Before we left for Guatemala, I treated an injured man in the Emergency Department at Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa. We talked and learned he was from Totonicapán, where I’d been volunteering. He asked if I could care for a young relative in Totonicapán when I arrived. We were able to arrange it,” said Dr. Bartels.

Many of the children and adults seen by the medical professionals were suffering from chronic conditions, like malnutrition, birth defects, cancer, cerebral palsy, and more. The Kaiser Permanente doctors were limited in their treatment options during their mobile medical clinics, but provided acute and chronic medications, wound care, some minor surgical interventions, nutrition advice, and pediatric and prenatal vitamins. The team provided care for over 2,000 patients Medical and surgical referrals were made for over 400 patients.

Dr. Alexandra Klikoff, an ObGyn at Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara recalled such one man who brought in his nephew for care, but asked Dr. Klikoff if she could provide a splint for an old arm injury. “When I felt his arm, I realized his humerus was completely broken, and had been like that for a year,” she said. “He was afraid that I’d fix it that day, rather than first taking care of his nephew.”

The man, and many others, were referred to Faith in Practice specialists at medical centers operating in the larger Guatemalan cities. For the Kaiser Permanente doctors, the volunteer mission was rewarding.

“The days are very long and physically demanding. Few of the medical resources that one routinely takes for granted in the States are available to us.,” said Dr. Beekley. “Rarely is our team able to alleviate as much suffering and provide as much care as we would like to. Yet, somehow we always finish the week feeling rewarded; reconnected with our passion for healing and re-inspired to live a life of service.”

For more information about volunteering with Faith in Practice, visitwww.faithinpractice.org.