June 8, 2012
Today, we held clinic at the Puesto de Salud in
Lamay. It is the local health clinic where we first started the project years
ago. We liked this clinic since it was easy to setup and there was plenty of
space. In all we saw about 67 patients.
While we didn't have as many patients as in
previous days we were able to see many patients that needed help. We treated
everything from musculoskeletal complaints to infections to diabetes. Dr.
Marisol was our host and allowed us to use her clinic the whole day. In return
we gave the staff instruction in Ophthalmology (thanks Dr. Mehta) and how
to use a back-board (thanks David). While these patients tended to have better
healthcare in general than those in the far away mountain villages, most of
them had medical problems we were able to address. It was a good contrast, and
we saw a greater variety of diseases.
I had the opportunity to coordinate the clinic
today and I believe it was the smoothest running clinic yet this year. I really
think we are getting better at running our clinics efficiently and effectively.
In fact by 2PM we had seen all of the patients for the day. However, while we
were packing up a very sick patient came in. She appeared very ill and our
staff immediately pulled her in and began interviewing her.
She spoke Quechua but her daughter was present and
translated. She was a 76 year old woman with a bad headache that had started
that morning. She also had difficulty breathing and was found to be feverish.
The team was concerned that she had meningitis or pneumonia. After examining
her they were able to diagnose her with pneumonia and sepsis. Many team members
were involved in her care and she was kept at the clinic for observation. We
will let you know how she did once we find out.
Clark Madsen
5th year medical student, Cleveland Clinic Lerner
College of Medicine
Clinical Coordinator
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