LSU Medical Team

Hello from Guatemala,

Sometimes I still am overcome with God's blessings. Over the past 10 days so much has happened it is really hard to contain everything that God is doing in my life. I just want to share with you a few things God has done here in the past few weeks.

A team of medical students were here from LSU (Louisiana State University). We saw just over 1,400 patients in 5 jungle clinics and they were fantastic! We went to some really remote villages because I was again contacted by the new President of Guatemala's wife's office. The First Ladies office asked if I would continue to help their projects even though it is a new First Lady and of course new staff people. So we went to some villages so far back in the jungle I did not even know they existed in my area. This village was set up by the First Ladies office and we saw about 400 people that day. The team had a great time not only doing medical work but playing and interacting with the kids.

We had to cross some pretty rickety bridges and some of the students wondered whether we would make it or not but I assured them we would make it. But on the inside I was thinking, "man I sure hope this bridge holds this bus". One of the Students named Randy fell while playing soccer and so he let each of his classmates take their turn at putting a suture in. My nurse Marleni made sure they didn't sew up the wrong leg. Just kidding they were great. But since they were all first year meds students they were hoping their friends cut was bigger so they could practice more.

One of the villages had some really sick patients. Sometimes people that come down here don't realize what an impact they have on these people. But look at this little boy. He has some kind of skin disorder that was driving him crazy with itching. He had been like this for months and his mother had no money to even take a bus to get to my clinic, so he just suffered. One of the students working in the skin station applied just simple hydrocortisone cream to stop the itching and then we gave them antifungal cream to take home. This little boy felt relief from the intense itching probably for the first time in months.

Another sad case we see is mal-nutrition. This little boy was so bad we gave his mother special infant milk. He is 3 years old. His mother only fed him coffee in a bottle because that is all she had.

However on the flip side take a look at how well Rodrigo is doing. He can touch his face with his hand and feed himself and here he is showing off for the camera. He has been accepted into the Fresh Start surgery program so we are working on getting his Visa so he can go to the United States and get the surgery he needs done. We just need to raise the money to fly him and his father to San Diego CA. If anyone has any extra sky miles you would like to help this boy and his father get to San Diego CA, with I know it sure would be appreciated. We will be online with a direct video feed, live from the Telemed video equipment next Monday so Dr Amanda can see Rodrigo’s progress.

This equipment is opening doors for us beyond what I could have imagined. When the First Ladies office found out about it she set up an appointment for me personally with the Minister of Health of Guatemala. The owner of the Telemed Company is going to fly in and come to the meeting and donate another unit to the Minister of Health. This will help me in getting the contacts and permits I need to build a hospital here in our area. So it seems as though God keeps going ahead of me and opening doors I never could have done on my own.

Today a Congress Woman from my district called me and told me she had heard of my work here and wanted to come and meet me. So I said. "OK." She came with her husband who is a Doctor. We had a wonderful time together and he wants to help me do clinics when I have teams and she is going to pull some strings to help get my residency papers through Immigration. It has taken years to get this far and now there is another hold up. I was just about ready to pull my hair out and she said don't worry I can help you I am also a Lawyer. They were great folks and seemed to really want to help their people.

As they left, I told them to come and visit anytime as "Mi Casa es su Casa" (My house is your house) she said can you give me the deed? I said, "you are truly a Congresswoman and a lawyer" and we all laughed but I went and hid my papers.

Here is the LSU Medical Student Team and on the ends are two nurses from Clayton State College in Atlanta, GA. They are assistant Deans of the college and wanted to check out what I do and see about bringing student nurses down for training and credit for school and help me at the same time. So it looks like there may be some student nursing teams coming down next year and they can also help work at the hospital, so there again it seems as though God is opening doors I never even thought of.
Thank you LSU Team for all you did!

On a personal note, my son, Lance, came home after two years overseas in Iraq with the U.S. Coast Guard. He is now stationed in Miami, FL and is doing great. I talked to him on the phone tonight and he sounded great! Thank the Lord!

A big storm is raging outside right now so I have to get this news letter off before my power goes out.

God Bless,
In His Service,

Bryan

Junglemedic Missions
Rio Dulce, Izabal
Guatemala Central America

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

This page was last updated 07/19/08