The University of Virginia has several programs in Guatemala and today several members of the faculty involved in the programs visited Hospitalito Atitlán. Dr. Bob O’Conner, Jessica Gonzalez, Dra. Leigh Grossman, Susanna Williams, Dra. Susana, Dr. Chuc, José Reanda, Dr. David Burt and Dr. Max Luna.
The Centro de Ancianos in Santiago Atitlán is a project created by Sharing the Dream an organization in South Dakota. It is a senior citizens center where people meet for lunch during the week. Participants are enrolled in an ‘insurance’ program at Hospitalito Atitlán, that covers their medical care. Here a woman and her daughter are finishing up their consultation with a stop to the office of HA social worker Chenta Chavajay.
Recently Hospitalito Atitlán received an educational video that was created with Obras Sociales Hermano Pedro and translated to Tz’utujil through a grant from Club Rotario Guatemala Norte and several US Rotary Clubs. The grant was written by Joe Hamilton of the Sunnyvale California Rotary Club. The DVD was just one part of a $54,000 grant that included medical equipment. The film touches on five topics, hygiene in the home, interpersonal relationships, nutrition, maternal infant health and most common illnesses. Patients are being educated daily with the DVD and are so happy it is in their own language.
Above, Hospitalito Atitlan’s social worker, Chenta Chavajay, interviews an expectant mother. This mother-to-be, and many others in Santiago Atitlan, are in need of generous sponsors to assist them financially through their pre and post-natal health needs.
The mothers we enroll in the program are poor or determined to be ‘high-risk’ because of their age or a history of difficult pregnancies. And oftentimes it’s a combination of the two.
In taking part in the program, the mother’s are given pre and post-natal counseling, and free medical services, including the option to give birth in the Hospitalito, if they desire.
We’d like to increase the number of women currently taking part in the program. To sponsor a woman, it costs $25 a month for a year (or $300 in a lump-sum). For more information, visit the Maternal Infant webpage here.
The Hospitalito was built in large part to address the high levels of maternal and infant mortality in the Atitlan region. This program brings us closer to that goal. Please consider sponsoring!
Brandon Katz and Jonathan Pearlstein have been at the Hospitalito helping to develop a new program, a Medical Spanish CME, that we hope will begin in early 2012. We hope that this course will fill a need for physicians with an intermediate level of Spanish who would like the opportunity to immerse themselves in a language class specifically designed for physicians. Look for more information about this great opportunity in a couple of months. CME class size will be limited. Thanks guys.
This months class with the women in the maternal infant program was on management of trash. This might seem simple to us, but with open cooking fires in the home, and the change of packaging from banana leaves to plastic, there is now more plastic being burned in the living space. The women enjoyed the talk presented by ADDECCAP.
Hospitalito Atitlán administrator José Reanda met with Dr. Rudolfo Estrada and Rotary friends in Guatemala City to receive a donation last week. The funds came from a raffle for a new car held by the Rotary Club. Additional equipment for the laboratory will be purchased with the donation of Q21,000.
University of Pennsylvania’s student summer program, GHI just completed eight weeks in Santiago Atitlán doing research. The group led by faculty Dr. Kent Bream, Fran Barg and Mamie Guidera included medical anthropology, engineering, pre-med and social work students. Here they are pictured enjoying the the beach on San Pedro volcano. From left to right are Katherine Bisnaz, Melanie Philip, Ollin Venegas, Vanessa Romero, Mili Mehta, Emily Blecker, Janet Sung and Julia D’Souza.
Cecilia Azucena Sosof the little preemie born in February was fortunate to be seen by a pediatric neurologist today at the Hospitalito. Dr. Soe Mar is visiting Santiago Atitlán for a couple of days with her family. She contacted HA to see if she could be of service and she was asked to do a talk with staff physicians on treating seizures when they enter the emergency room. Dr. Mar works at Washington University in St. Louis. Barbara Sosof translated from Spanish to Tz’utujil for Concepcion, the babies mother, and volunteer nurse Isobel Harvey translated from Spanish to English for Dr. Mar.
David Fernandez de Velasco and Alexandra Arteaga are recent graduates of medical school in Madrid, Spain. Dra. Makini Chisom Straker is in her second year of residency at Mt. Sinai in New York as an Emergency physician. Julia D’Souza is a UPenn student in Santiago Atitlán with the Guatemalan Health Initiative program. She is a bio-medical engineering student and she is working to create a new inventory of medical equipment. Wonderful… hard working…. and professional.
Students from the University of Virginia completed their studies in women’s health Santiago Atitlán this week and presented their findings during morning report.
Rebecca Bogdan is a school nurse in Santa Cruz CA who took a month of her summer vacation to volunteer at the Hospitalito. Her specialty is with the severely disabled students in Santa Cruz County.Cristobal has returned to work at HA, after six months of “practica” which completes his requirements for graduation as tecnico en laboratorio.
Members of Asociación K’aslimaal welcomed old and new friends from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and Little Rock Arkansas to Hospitalito Atitlán today. The group is here to celebrate the memory of Father Stanley Rother “Padre Aplas”, an Oklahoma priest who served in Santiago Atitlán until he was martyred 30 years ago this week. Bishop Anthony Taylor spoke about the construction of the first hospital in Panabaj, and the 60-year history of Oklahoma involvement in the area. Juan and Diego remember the priests from their many visits over the years. Carol Davito secretary for the Archbishop in Oklahoma City organized the visit which includes 40 from the Parrish. In the photo from left to right are… Abbot Jerome, Juan Tzina, Abbot Lawrence, Lyn Dickey, Father Stephen Bird, Archbishop Beltran, Bishop Anthony Taylor, ?, Archbishop Paul Coakley, Diego Chichom, Msgr. Ed Weisenberger, Msgr. Peter Wells, ?, Father Tim Luschen
Canadian dentist, Beverly Lai arrived at Hospitalito Atitlán to volunteer this week. She hadn’t realized that the clinic was brand new… and never before used, so she set to work sorting and sterilizing equipment and supplies. She had questions of course, and to our great delight, Dr. Glen Dean surprised us with a visit that afternoon. Dr. Dean is a dentist from Grand Junction, Colorado who has worked in Guatemala for many years and been instrumental in funding the new dental clinic. He answered Beverly’s questions and helped her find what she was looking for. We have a saying at Hospitalito… the right person always comes along when needed… and it was especially true this day.
Hospitalito Atitlán and ADISA share many of the same goals, and it is always exciting to share another ADISA success. Yesterday families from around Guatemala arrived in Santiago Atitlán for wheelchairs. Bethel Ministries International’s team of orthopedic specialists and wheelchair specialists were there to make sure that the correct chair fit perfectly for every person that arrived. The organization works thru out Guatemala. The chairs were beautiful as were the smiling faces of the families receiving them.
The deadline was July 15, 2011, if we wanted to claim the remaining $102,000 of the $750,000 dollar for dollar challenge grant from the Kendeda Fund we had to raise $102,000 in four months
More than 250 letters and 1700 email appeals went out a few weeks ago to all of you, the wonderful volunteers and supporters who make up the Hospitalito Atitlán family. Then we held our breath. Your response was quick and overwhelmingly generous. More than 120 donations poured in… gifts ranging from $25 to $20,0000 and by today we had reached and even exceeded the $102,000.
You can imagine our elation that so many of you continue to care and want to bring quality healthcare to the Mayan population here at Lake Atitlan.
On their behalf and from all of us at Hospitalito we send heartfelt thanks and an open invitation to come visit Hospitalito. You will see firsthand what a beautiful and amazing hospital your generosity has made possible.
In the work to raise the money to reach the Kenededa Challenge deadline, we met with our friends in Guatemala City, Amigos del Lago, who have continued to be generous supported of Hospitalito Atitlán. In this photo, Clara is preparing lunch for HA staff at their lovely home in Chelchijabaj.
The community of Santiago Atitlán is working together to reach the $750,000 goal to claim the entire Kendeda Challenge Grant before July 15th.
Amy and Ben Polakoski have visited the Hospitalito in the past, and this year they decided to bring friends, and so they invited members from their Church near Pittsburgh, PA. They packed their suitcases with baby clothes, band aids and plumbing fixtures for the construction. The group watched the Hospitalito film and had a tour. Thank you Ben and Amy and all of our new friends and we look forward to your return in the future.
Years ago, just months after Tropical Storm Stan, when it became apparent that there was no returning to the old hospital in Panabaj, donations to build a new hospital were solicited. The first donation, came from Lou Seyler in memory of his father, a small town doctor in Commerce Texas. Lou is here with his niece, Cassie Sorrels who is studying Spanish. He is helping to build cabinets but will soon use his experience as a retired social worker to assist in creating a plan for coming educational classes. He also brought a Sleep Sheep which will go into the incubator to imitate the mother’s heartbeat.
Congratulations are in order for Hospitalito Atitlán’s social worker Vicenta “Chenta” Chavajay, for the birth of her baby boy. Dr. Brent assisted in the normal delivery at 1PM on June 30th. The family will return home to San Pedro la Laguna tomorrow.
Dr. Nestor Carrillo and others gave an educational talk to Santiago Atitlán medical professionals today as a kick-off for a community program that will include talks at churches and schools as well as forming groups of patients who will participate in monitoring diabetes together. Santiago Atitlán has the highest level of type 2 diabetes in Sololá.
Thanks to our good friends from the Club Rotario Guatemala Oeste and the Foundation of Queen Sofia of Spain, the shelves in the pharmacy at Hospitalito Atitlán are full. Yesterday Jeff Buchwald from the Spanish pharmaceutical company Normon and Rotarian Jorge Alborná met with HA administration at Amicelco to deliver the cases of donated medications.
When Bonnie O’Neill, Chair of Amigos Hospitalito Atitlán lived in Atlanta, she was instrumental in founding Medshare International. Medshare collects and sorts medical equipment and supplies and then finds donors to help with the costs of shipping full containers to hospitals in developing countries. A year ago Hospitalito Atitlán received it’s first Medshare container. This week, Bonnie brought Medshare administrators to visit the Hospitalito. Terry Monday from Medshare’s west coast office in San Leandro CA and Amanda Paniagua and Josh Kravitz from Atlanta. It was great to finally meet the Medshare people we have been working with. Thank you for the visit and all the excellent quality medical equipment and supplies!
Dr. Robin Jafari and his wife Jodi organized a neo-natal resuscitation training with Hospitalito nursing staff and a meeting with administration to discuss a formal training program for traditional midwives. Professional nurse midwives from around Lake Atitlán and Antigua attended the meeting, as well as members of the Board of Directors of Pre-Vent, the organization they founded in Washington state.
Dr. Kent Bream and students from Penn’s Guatemalan Health Initiative arrived last week followed by medical school librarians, Carlos Rodriguez and Anne Seymour and hospital IT specialist Doug Smullens. The plans for the tele-medicine program described in the article below, begin today. The project may include the local Centro de Salud, the National Hospital and clinics around the lake. Read more below…http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/03/penn-guatemala-technology-training/
It was fun and games at the Hospitalito Friday afternoon… a baby shower for social worker Chenta Chavajay.
Her maternity leave starts Monday. Head of nursing, Felipa Archila is famous for her party games and decorating.
All the hospital staff attended with guardianes advising how to calm a crying baby and doctors giving instructions on diaper change. It was great fun and a lot of laughs.
One month after his surgery with the Smile Network International team, Manuelito visited the Hospitalito and everyone was very happy to see how well he is doing. 28 surgeries were performed in early May by the Minnesota team. His mother Cruz, is sponsored in the Maternal Infant program.
The tragic news from the Peten has caused a decline in applications and cancellations at the hospital and now there is immediate need for OB coverage, ER, pediatricians, dentists, and family practice doctors. Summer on Lake Atitlán is lovely with cool evenings, afternoon showers and flowers everywhere. Escape the heat and humidity…. and enjoy the beautiful highlands of Guatemala and help provide medical care for the Tz’utujil maya community. Volunteer here…. http://www.hospitalitoatitlan.org/med_vol.htmlYou can also help by printing the above poster and displaying for others to see.http://www.hospitalitoatitlan.org/docs/Hospitalito-Atitlán-poster.pdf
An article about Carissa’s Hospitalito experience appears in the NYACK EMS newsletter. http://www.nyackems.org/ems/news.php