Junglemedic News Letter
 
“Coincidences”
Hello Everybody from Guatemala
 
Well our medical team from the mountains of North Carolina just left and boy did we have a jam packed week. The team leader is an ole Paramedic who founded the “JAMES” project (Jesus Ambulance Medical Equipment Services) cool huh?
 
These guys were fantastic!...  The only way I can describe this team was extreme!
This was one tough group of guys and gals. They fought over who got to ride up the mountains in the back of the truck!
Pastor David on Left and Paramedic Donald on the right. ( I believe Tom Cruise is the guy on the extreme left, ) OK OK I can hear you,,,, OH Tom has gained a few pounds huh? Real funny!
Well now that you have had your fun making fun of me, we actually did some great clinics.
Teresa and Laura (RN’s) lavaging ears.
Tina giving worm medicine
OK let me tell you about a few weird coincidences…. These two nurses bring this new fangled gadget called the Elephant Ear… (OK OK you can all stop you Bryan elephant jokes now)

So I am interested in how this works and find out that in the villages we are going to many of the patients we saw had hearing problems. As I began to examine everyone ears I found that a high percentage of these peoples ears are really full of cerumen ( ear wax) So the nurse began cleaning these peoples ears and what a difference. Then as we were about to leave the second village a lady asked me to come to her thatched home and examine her 24 y/o daughter who had not gotten out of bed for 3 months!
I found that every time she got up she got dizzy and could not walk. So I looked in her ears and guess what. Yep completely full and infected. No wonder her equilibrium was off. So by coincidence we had the exact equipment to clean her ears and get her on antibiotics.
By the time we left she said she already felt better and we believe God will totally heal her when I check on her next week.

Then we head up into the mountains to let the Village of Santa Elena know we will be up there next week with a team from Maine. When we get up there we run into the young man that is their teacher. He walks or rides his bicycle up that mountain ( 15 miles ) every week day to teach the kids. Then walks another 5 miles into the jungle to another village. We meet him on his bike on the way down the mountain and have him eat lunch with us and feed him his first peanut butter and jelly sandwich. ( He loved it ) Then he took off for the bottom of the mountain. About 15 minutes later we are heading down the mountain and laying on the side of the dirt and stone road is this young man (the teacher) with his shoulder broken and he can’t move. His bike had crashed and he went flying onto a rock. Again by coincidence we happen to have 3 Paramedics and 2 nurses and we stabilized him and made an ambulance run to the Fire Dept and got him transported to the hospital 1 1/2 hours away. Honestly, it was so hot and desolate out there; I don’t know what he would have done had we not been coming down that mountain road.
The Teacher Inside the Ambulance This is our pick up ambulance. We should have our new ambulance next week. (Lord willing)
Well next day we are off down river to do a clinic in a village only accessible by boat. Below are a few pictures of the scenery for the nature lovers out there…
Riechelle loves flowers but I believe if you cannot kill it and eat it is not worth taking a picture of, but she is the picture lady so I have to throw some of these in to keep Momma happy huh?

Ok now back to the good stuff… Next we head to this mountain to a village so far back they still believe that white people come to steal their children and sell their organs… (Just so you know we do not do that)

So we 4 wheel it up this mountain and get to speak to a man about doing a medical clinic there in May when theCharlotte team comes. They are very reserve because they have never seen a doctor before and don’t know what to make of this weird looking vehicle full of Gringos..

But they are friendly and welcome us to come back and do a clinic. However on the way down we see an older Mayan lady who is waving to us from the side of the hill asking forwhat seems like help.

As we stop and look closed we see that she has fallen on sharp rocks and cut herself on the knee. By anothercoincidence we are there just as she is coming down the hill.
So we lay her on the tailgate of the truck and I start sewing her up in this heat. Boy will I be glad to get that bus….
So we transport her back to her village and then get her in her own bed and on antibiotics.
Now as it happened when her two children saw us they ran and hid. Scared we were there to kidnap them and sell their organs. So now no one knows where the kids are and they are starting to think we did kidnap them.

The father comes to get in our truck to find out if we have his kids hidden.I get Gabby to explain to him in Quetchie we did not kidnap their kids and we don’t take Guatemalan children, but he is staring at Gabby and Deborah and thinking we have already kidnapped them…… So it was a bit tense for a few minutes, but when he saw my fireman ID card and others told him I was the doctor in Rio Dulce he seemed to calm down.

So please pray that those two kids were found! OK!

I’ll keep you posted….

Here are a few glimpses into our clinics….
This team had entirely too much fun so their pay was docked by half….
Our nurses and lay medical folks were awesome….
They really are beautiful kids huh?