Cape CARES Volunteers Bring Medical Treatment To Hondurans

‘Esto no va a doler un poco.’
’This won’t hurt a bit.’

By Dr. Herbert O. Mathewson
Los Encinitos, Honduras, February, 2008—The men, women, and children begin arriving at the gate of the compound at 7:30 a.m. Some are dropped off by truck. Others come by horse or burro, which are tethered in the shade of the pine trees. Most have walked.
Many left their villages in the surrounding hills in the dark at 5:30 a.m. The gate opens at 8:30 and they enter in a single file to the registration area where they are matched up with their personal medical record number and directed to either the dental or medical building.

Another weeklong medical mission by Cape CARES (Central American Relief Effort) has begun in Los Encinitos, 35 miles up in the hills from Tegucigalpa, the capital city of Honduras. During this week almost 600 patients will be seen and treated by volunteer physicians, dentists and nurse practitioners.

Cape CARES has been sending teams of volunteers to three different sites in the mountains of Honduras where the people have little access to health care for 14 years. Volunteers include dentists, physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, dental hygienists, optometrists, chiropractors, pharmacists, translators and support personnel.

A Cape CARES team visits here each November, February, and May.

My first visit to Los Encinitos was in February 2006. Jennifer Smith called me in January to say that the physician scheduled to go had just canceled for family reasons and that the Cape CARES team was desperate to find a physician  “who did not have a fully booked office or plans for a family ski trip during the second week in February."

Since I was in my third year of retirement and had two new hips, I had to admit that I fit both criteria. I liked it so much I returned this year with Ms. Smith. Captain/EMT of Eastham; Amelia Fournier, Adult Nurse Practitioner of Duffy Health Center, Hyannis, and nine other volunteers headed by the team leader, David Jacobs, DMD. MBA of Rockland. Ms. Smith has been attending annually for the last decade.
The dentists are the busiest, extracting up to 80 teeth a day. When possible they fill cavities and provide minor restorative work, while the dental assistants and other volunteers teach preventive dental care.

The adult medical practitioners see many patients who need more heart, blood pressure, or diabetic medicines.

One man is seen in follow-up of the extensive surgery received in Tegucigalpa after a fall down a well. Another is an 83-year-old man who walked two hours over rocky mountain paths to get to the clinic. His complaint? Sometimes had pain in his left knee!

Most of the children are small by comparison to their American counterparts, but are basically healthy. Once the children survive the first year of life, they seem to be resilient and grow steadily on a diet of mostly rice, beans and corn with an occasional chicken. This year we did have to quickly transport a two-month infant with extreme failure to thrive down to the city for immediate surgery to repair a stomach blockage. She was given a ride in the truck taking some of our interpreters back down to the city at the end of their stint of work.

(Most of the children go to school through the sixth grade only, after which the boys usually work in the fields and the girls often become pregnant.)

The Hondurans eagerly anticipate each medical mission. The state has established clinics throughout the country that administer immunizations and provide some pre-natal care. But their ability to administer general medical and dental care is limited.

Each village is assigned a designated day by the Honduran staff of Cape CARES to come to the Los Encinitos compound, a collection of one-story adobe and tin roof buildings originally built as an orphanage by Sister Maria Ignacias on her father’s farm.

Cape CARES was started in 1988 by Dr. Ted Keary, a dentist from Falmouth, who led an initial team of 70 people to Honduras.

In the years since, Cape CARES has grown to be an organization of several hundred volunteers including health professionals from all over Massachusetts, Colorado, Maine and elsewhere sending 10-12 person teams to three different sites in Honduras. Non-professional team members assist with patient registration, pharmacy stocking, and dental assistance. Spanish interpreters from the Discovery School in Tegucigalpa provide essential support in communicating with the patients and their families. The Knights of Malta in Tegucigalpa support the effort with translators, local organization, and expediting government clearances.

Cape CARES volunteers pay their own expenses, and donate their time and expertise to succor these people who have little regular access to medical care. CAPE CARES is supported solely by philanthropy. Go to www.capecares.org for more information about volunteering or contributing to this worthy program.

(Since his “retirement” as Medical Director of Cape Cod Hospital, Dr. Hub Mathewson has been practicing pediatrics part-time with Vonnegut Pediatrics in Quincy while serving as Medical Director and Chairman of Professional Advisory Committee of Cape Cod VNA , and as a member of Board of Trustees of the Rehabilitation Hospital of the Cape and Islands and as a member of Board of Directors of Duffy Health Center.)