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
For more than six months Hospitalito Atitlán staff and the Board of Directors has been working on a strategic plan for 2011-2015. Debra Gish of Gish Paz and Associates, led the effort. Participants included Dr. Juan Manuel Chuc, Dra. Susana Gonzales, Felipa Archila, José Reanda, Rebeca Petzey, Vicenta Chavajay, Lyn Dickey, Karin Bergstresser, and Drs. Brent Burket and Jennifer Thoene. Gish Paz and Associates is a consulting business that works world-wide. Debra worked with HA staff on a strategic plan immediately alter the disaster of Tropical Storm Stan. Her home is in Santiago Atitlán.
Dra. Michelle Yates is a resident at Ventura Country Medical Center under the direction of Dr. Mark Lepore. She and OB, Dra. Emily Lange of Omaha, NE are discussing a patient with the nurses.
Baby Cecelia returned for her check-up today and is growing and gaining. Dra. Erica Mintzer and Dr. Brent talked with the mother thru a nurse who translated from Tz’utujil to Spanish for them. The neurologist and nutricionist in Guatemala City have told mom that there is no need to return, baby is doing very well with her care at the Hospitalito.
Plastic surgeons and support staff arrived in Santiago Atitlán last Friday to prepare for a week of cleft palette surgery in one of the operating rooms.
Dr Juan Manuel Chuc says that the group is a delight to work with and is very respectful of the staff and surroundings.
Pediatrician Dr. Gutierrez with Alita, SNI’s organizer.
Saturday was the day for evaluating the patients and prioritizing surgeries depending on the distance traveled and the patients condition.
A family waiting for a life changing operation with their little one.
Baby girl after surgery. The team is performing five surgeries per day. The baby spends one night in the Hospitalito with a parent. SNI plans to return every six months. Hospitalito Atitlán’s first surgical jornada is a success. Thanks to everyone involved in the planning and to those who donated rooms for the families, translators and especially Tess Donie and Mike Harvey who took care of all the little details.
Sandra Van den Brink arrived to see the progress of Hospitalito Atitlán. She has been involved many years in Santiago Atitlán with Ayudamos Foundation, a non-profit she directs. She brought children’s vitamins and clothing… and chocolate for the medical staff. It was so nice she visited. Bodegero Antonio Chichom and Fredy Lacán are with here in the picture.
Cruz Ramirez is an Atitlaneco who returns home to unite with family every year during Semana Santa. The Washington DC area has been his home for nearly thirty years. Cruz is a social worker. He and his wife Olga enjoyed talking to Hospitalito Atitlán’s social worker about what is jokingly referred to as their “Mission Impossible”.
A few examples of the alfombras this year.
Perfect for Earth Day…. created entirely from natural materials, flower petals, pine needles, coffee beans, sand.
These beautiful designs were created with colored sawdust using stencils… see below.
The procession that leaves the Catholic Church at 4PM, carrying the coffin with the body of Christ over the beautiful alfombras all night, returning to the church at daybreak.
Obstetrician Esther Smtih, Hospitalito nurse Jacinto Garcia Chipir and Tim Manzo working in the emergency room.
For the children of Santiago Atitlán the beginning of the Easter week celebration starts with sledding down the church stairs in the giant pods of the corozo palm flowers.
Jason Lerner is an electrician and solar energy expert who is working all week with Santiago Atitlán electrician and solar expert Henry Mendoza to program the Outback Power inverters for Hospitalito Atitlán’s back up power system. Jason does trainings with Solar Energy International in Costa Rica and in Washington state. The inverters came as a very generous donation from Outback Power in Arlington WA. Dr. Chuc is learning a little about how long the batteries will support the functions at HA.
Cecilia was born February 10th at 29 weeks of gestation. Drs. Mark Lepore and Jerry Noah helped in the C-sec and made the decision to transfer the tiny preemie to Hospital Roosevelt’s neonatal intensive care in Guatemala City. We know very little about Cecilia’s first two months of life in Guatemala City, except that her mother was only allowed to visit once. Last week she returned. Her weight remained the same as at birth. In the five days since she was reunited with her mother, she has made remarkable improvements. In five days, she gained a half a pound, and now weighs 4.62 pounds. She is also much more alert. In this foto she has reached 39 weeks, a normal gestation is 40 weeks.
This little miracle is being watched with love by staff and especially Dr. Brent Burket. She and her mother are sponsored in the Maternal Infant program.
Every Friday afternoon between Ash Wednesday and Easter a procession leaves the Catholic Church.
Dr. George Gilson has volunteered at Hospitalito Atitlán five times. He travels every year from Anchorage Alaska with his wife Grace (originally from Chimaltenango) and one of their children or grandchildren. George is an obstetrician. This week, he worked with the Centro de Salud at HA during the monthly education classes for the traditional midwives. Under George’s guidance, Lucia Quiejú is demonstrating the correct method to get the baby out of the box.
The youth group from St. Paul’s Episcopal Church raised funds to finish the new hospital by doing yard work and selling firewood in their hometown of Bellingham WA. They delivered a check for $1000 towards construction, which will be matched by the Kendeda Fund. They also painted the roof. The adults in the group worked as OBs, anesthesiologists, and some helped in the laundry area. It was great to see these friends again.
Phil Sperl is a Salem Oregon Rotarian who has been a friend of the Hospitalito for many years. He came to HA with members of Club Rotario Guatemala Oeste and worked in the inpatient building in Panabaj before the disaster of tropical storm Stan in 2005. This year, he started the painting in the inpatient area in the new hospital. Working with Phil were Mary Oveldette, Steve Schussman and Raeann McDonald. The East Salem Rotarians wrote a RI grant for equipment that included the diesel power generator, an anesthesia machine, photocopier, dental chair, commercial washer and dryer, nebulizers and fetal monitors. We look forward to his return next year.
Staff and volunteers said goodbye today to two enthusiastic volunteers, with a lunch upstairs on the patio. San Francisco area pediatrician Katey Hoffman has been at Hospitalito Atitlán for a month, and Spanish medical school graduate Silvia Fernandez Ortiz has enjoyed Santiago Atitlán so much that she extended her three months to six. But their time in Guatemala is up… we think that they will return to Atitlán and the Tz’utujiles.
Jimmy Hutchinson is one several volunteers who continues to return to Santiago Atitlán and the Hospitalito several times a year, and supports medical services from afar as well. His family business, Hankin’s Surgical Supply in Springfield MO, has been a source of many donations. Jimmy arrived in early 2004, to help to clean the abandoned hospital buildings in Panabaj, (a dirty task, to say the least). That makes him one of the first volunteers. He returned again this week to install and train the staff on use of the oxygen generator, and he also helped unpack and set up the new portable incubator that arrived Friday night thru a Rotary International donation.
Obstetricians Zoltán Kovács and Világhy István traveled from Hungary to volunteer for a month at Hospitalito Atitlán. Zoltán works in Budapest and Dr. István in a small village, Ispánk. They study Spanish constantly when they are not needed in the Hositalito, and have invited several HA staff and volunteers for some delicious Hungarian meals at Las Milpas. It has been a great experience for everyone to have them here, our first Hungarian volunteers!
Dr. Nate Brown returned to volunteer at HA for the month of March and had the experience of encountering a disease seldom seen in the first world. Nate suspected a 35-year old man had tetanus. He had suffered a machete wound a week earlier. Dr. Chuc agreed with Nate, having seen a man with the facial tension associated with the disease. The director of the Health Department, Dr, Juan Chumil was notified, and the discussion continued until the patient exhibited a strong muscular spasm that convinced everyone present. His treatment began immediately and he has since recovered.
Hospitalito Atitlán turned SIX-years old this week. The Board of Directors, Asociación K’aslimaal celebrated by inviting staff, medical volunteers and the construction workers to lunch and for a group photo in front of the beautiful new hospital. Lunch was chicken with a pepian (pumpkin seed) sauce, tamales, avacado and mango juice. Six years ago, the staff was much smaller and no one could ever have imagined the future of the Hospitalito and the community of Santiago Atitlán.
A major breakthrough was achieved when Hospitalito Atitlán began producing oxygen today. Until today, cylinders were taken to Guatemala City for filling every two weeks, sometimes more often. The Bomberos faced the same expensive and risky situation. Thanks to many Rotarians in Guatemala, California and Oklahoma, this dream is finally a reality and thanks to Jimmy Hutchinson for the installation.
The March Maternal Infant meeting was led by Susan Davies, a lactation specialist from Cambridge MA. Susan talked about the importance of only breast milk the first six months. She has also been researching the nutrients of local foods in order to be able to recommend foods that available that will meet the recommendations by the NIH.
At Hospitalito Atitlán, fourth year medical students are accepted to volunteer, work and learn from experienced supervisors and specialists. Joe Palter is seeing patients with Dr. Theodore Ning. “Ted” Ning, a urologist who teaches at the University of Colorado has been working in Guatemala for many years with various projects. Last year he volunteered and introduced the idea of vasectomy to the Atitlaneco man. This winter he scheduled several clinic days at HA. Thank you very much Ted and Joe.
Susan Davies, a lactation specialist from Cambridge discusses a newborn with pediatrician Katey Hoffman in front of the nurse’s station. Fourth year medical student Joe Pelter from the Connecticut Health Center goes over a patient file with surgeon William David Omand who is volunteering with his wife Dra. Janice Routhledge from Cold Lake Alberta in Canada
In 2009, Dra. Maria Teresa Tortosa worked for two months as an anesthesiologist at Hospitalito Atitlán. Last week, she gave birth to a baby boy, Nico in Madrid where she and her husband live. Since leaving the Hospitalito, Teresa has been sponsoring two children in the Maternal Infant program.
Concepción looks lovingly at her new baby boy just hours after his birth yesterday. They are recipients of medical care and education about healthy babies in Hospitalito Atitlán’s Maternal Infant Sponsorship program. You can read more and sign up to sponsor a woman and her baby at http://www.hospitalitoatitlan.org/sponsorship.html