Mission Guatemala

SARATOGA SPRINGS - Dr. Fred Jacobs’ office sits on a quaint city street within walking distance to Saratoga Hospital.

A half-dozen seats in an L-shaped pattern line the waiting room.
The tools of the podiatrists trade - assorted foot creams and ankle supporters line one shelf;
toe cushions, bunion shields and heel cups are displayed on another.
At the receptionist’s area, a simple white bucket carries a handmade sign that reads,
“Medical Mission to Guatemala - any donation appreciated.”

“The money deposited in the donation box will be used for buying toys for the children of the village,” Jacobs said.
He will be delivering them personally to the Central American country as part of a team
of 40 other medical practitioners and assistants that will head for the rural village of
Nueva Santa Rosa.
It is trip taken twice a year, organized by the Glens Falls Medical Missionary Foundation.

Richard Leach, a local doctor, was in the process adopting two children from Guatemala
when he became aware of the medical needs, particularly in the southern part of the country.
There were no resources to provide health care for the area.
‘These kids are dying,’ they told Leach. ‘Is there anything that you can do?'

The foundation began medical and dental mission trips to Nueva Santa Rosa in April 1997.
An eye program at the hospital in the village of Cuilapa was added to the mission itinerary
in 1998. More than 1,500 patients are treated during each of the weeklong clinics.

“Last year was the first time I went. I will be going next week, then hopefully again in next year,” Jacobs said.

A typical team includes doctors, physician assistants and nurses for each of the general medical, pediatric and women’s clinics. There are also dental, physical therapy and eye clinics staffed
by trained volunteers.

“It’s a third-world country. They don’t have running water. And it’s a place where the rich
feed upon the poor,” Jacobs said. “There is also not a lot of help from the government, so it keeps you on your toes.”

During last year’s trip, teeth were the biggest concern. “They pulled something like
800 teeth during that week,” Jacobs said.
The doctor also learned his services would be used for more than treating heel spurs,
toe warts and varicose veins.

“On the second day I was there, they found out I knew about more than feet, so I was
involved in different medical procedures. Suturing is suturing, and a medical background
lets you help in areas that are most needed,” Jacobs said.

“A little girl came to us with a broken jaw she got in a car accident. The girl’s mother
didn’t want us to get a dentist to help her,” Jacobs said. Later he found out why.
The woman’s husband and son had died six months earlier in the hospital where they
went for treatment after an accident.

“She thought that hospitals killed people,” Jacobs said. By sending her daughter to
the doctor, she feared the little girl would meet the same fate.
Eventually, they convinced the woman that they were only going to wire the girl’s jaw.

Safety is also a concern.
“We have armed guards around us. We don’t go out at night. It’s not the type of place
that you go wandering around if you don’t know where you’re going.”

The team sets up at a clinic in a converted church in the village near the El Salvador border.
The clinic is built like an old fort, Jacobs said. “It’s all walls.”

Volunteers travel to surrounding villages weeks in advance of the medical teams’ arrival.
The advance team issues different colored tickets to residents that are specifically
coordinated with clinic visits and each day has its own color representing one of the
surrounding villages.

The medical team stays at a family-run hotel about 40 miles from the clinic site. Every
morning they board vans and buses for the two-hour trip. The journey allows for a
sharing of experiences.

Guatemala is bisected with a row of rugged mountains called the Highlands that extend
across the center of the country. Culturally, Guatemalans are divided into two groups:
the descendants of the Maya Indians who continue to follow the ancient native way of life,
and a mixed group from Indian and Spanish ancestry called Ladinos, who follow
Spanish-American customs and language.

The country is similar in size to Tennessee. It has a tropical climate and is bordered by the Caribbean Sea on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other. More than 12 million people
live in Guatemala. The missionary foundation is involved in the southern area of the
country, where medical assistance is most needed.

“There is not too much help from the government in terms of supplies or medications.
Mostly, we bring everything down with us,” Jacobs said.

This year, the mission is donating an ambulance which some EMTs are driving down
through Mexico for delivery and Jacobs expects the team will see about 400 people each day.

Mixed in with the new faces, he hopes to revisit with some of the villagers he treated on a previous trip last year.
Jacobs carries around a stack of photographs with their images on them as a remembrance.

by Thomas Dimopoulos
originally published in The Saratogian, Oct. 11, 2002