The Longest Call

Hello from Guatemala,

When I was a Paramedic in the States I worked for an Ambulance company in Maine. We covered one of the largest areas of the State, not only geographically but population wise. We also had the extra burden of responding in the middle of blizzards which causes one to slow down when driving on solid ice with fresh snow. (Or at least it should). But when everything was averaged out, we had about an 18 minute response time to most medical emergency calls.

Here it is a 1½ hour transport time to the nearest hospital. However, yesterday I went on the longest emergency medical call I have ever done in 30 years of EMS work. We were supposed to go down river to a farm in a remote river basin area to set up clinics for next week's team. But the owner of the farm called and asked if we could take some medicine with us. I said, "Sure, what is the problem?" He said, "My main worker on the farm is Pedro. His wife has been sick for 4 days and can't even walk. They think she is dying".

So I loaded my bag and took Riechelle and Deborah (she gets to go every where because she is not in school yet) and Megan a friend of ours here helping us with the Pharmacy.

We got in a boat and went down river about 10 miles. Then took off up a tributary into the jungle and I mean jungle. Now as I said, I took Riechelle and Deborah. (I don't normally take them on calls because as you men know it takes our wives longer to get ready than painting the Golden Gate Bridge) but this time they got moving. After going about 10 more miles up this tributary, we then turned onto a canal.

By this time I was thinking, are we ever going to get up this shallow canal in this boat. (I'm thinking if we have to walk in this tall snake infested grass, I'm going to have to protect my wife and child by riding on Riechelle's back so I don't get bit. That way I can take care of her if she is bit.) Hey, it is just pure logic, right?

Well we made it up the canal, and then got in an old 4X4 pick up truck in which the body was not connected to the chassis. So when the truck went down the body went up. We were loaded to the max with supplies and we went from dense Jungle to open plains like being in Oklahoma.

The guy taking us has on a 9mm pistol with 3 magazine clips that make Clint Eastwood look like Pee Wee Herman. This was one tough Hombre. I said, "Uh, why do you carry a gun out here in the middle of nowhere? Are there thieves?" He said, "No, because of 'TeeeGray'." I said, "What is TeeGray?" He said in English, "Tigers." I laughed and said, "Yeah right." He then showed me a picture of a 200 lb. tiger they shot recently. I stayed real close to my new best friend. We finally got to the place where we would be holding and setting up a medical clinic for 9 remote surrounding villages. He told me they have never had a doctor or dentist help them and they would be walking as far as 5 hours by foot to see us.

Inside was the lady who was sick. Now before I tell you the rest of the story, you need a bit of history on this woman. She is rarely ever sick. These women out here are tough as nails. When she had her last baby, there was a complication and she was not passing the baby. So her husband and two other men put her in a hammock and tied it to a pole. They then started carrying her at night in the rain to the river 5 miles away. On the way, she said, "The baby is coming!" They took her under a small area that had been made out of thatched palm branches for the cows to be transported to a boat.

She had the baby and then her husband took his machete and cut the cord. They tied the baby in a T-shirt around their head and then tied the umbilical cord coming from the mother to her foot. Can you imagine? As soon as they carried her home, she delivered the placenta and went to work making tortillas over the wood fired pan they cook on. I said, "Did the baby live?" This is him now, alive and well. So when they said she said she was sick, I figured she was almost dead to be in bed for 4 days.

She was burning up with fever and had a raging pelvic infection, besides being dehydrated for 4 days. So I got an IV in her to replace fluid and gave her an injection of Rocephrin and then got her fever down with a fever reducer and got her on oral antibiotics. I asked her husband why he waited so long to ask for help. He said he had no way to get her out of the river and no money. I said, "What do you do when some one is very sick out here?" and he said, "They just die".

Megan giving me light to work with.

After that I saw a couple of more patients, and one was a 14 year old girl who was pregnant. I said, "Are you married?" She said, "Yes", she got married 8 weeks ago. Two weeks ago while doing a clinic, I had a young girl breast feeding her baby and telling me she was sick. I said, "How old are you." She said, "12 years old." I am still blown away because my little Gaby is 12 years old and she is not even allowed to look at boys and I told her she cannot date until she is 40 and then only double date. If a boy ever comes here and wants to date her, he will have to change the oil in all of my vehicles first, then I will consider the possibility after she turns 40.

Well, after seeing the patients we needed to head back as it is a long trip home. The farm owner said they needed to get their horses over to the other part of the land to get some supplies. He asked if we wanted to ride back on his horses. Megan, Riechelle and Deborah started jumping up and down like kids. So they got to ride horses back to the boat. I really wanted to but I only like horse on the grill with BBQ sauce. I believe animals were put on this earth for us to enjoy, on the grill. OK, OK, so I talk pretty tough, huh? They just did not have a horse I liked and so I hopped in the ole pick up.

When we got back to the boat the guys saw us off and took the horses to get supplies. Now for the rest of the story. See the man in brown sitting on the generator? Last night he was struck by lighting! The owner of the farm went and got him and his wife this morning and they both just left my clinic. His left arm and hand are asleep and he has no strength but I did an EKG and full exam and he is fine other than that. His wife was walking today like a new woman. So they think I am a miracle worker (You and I know different but they don't). What is good about that is that now this new area will trust me and we can have an open door to tell them about the Lord. OK, I have patients waiting but I wanted to share this because you never know what will happen here from one minute to the next. So this entire medical call has taken about 24 hours.

God Bless, and stay away from Lightening!
In His Service,

Bryan & Riechelle and Kids

Junglemedic Missions
Rio Dulce, Izabal
Guatemala Central America

E-Mail: Bryan@JungleMedicMissions.org
Web Site: http://www.junglemedicmissions.org/

This page was last updated 07/07/07