Dr. Dale Heisinger recently sent us some reflections on his experience in eight of our PeaceHealth Missions. Dale is both a great pediatrician and a kid magnet - it helps to look a bit like Santa Claus, no doubt. Here's what he has to say:
I must admit
that I was at first somewhat apprehensive about going to a 3rd world
country, but those fears were laid to rest very soon after meeting Kathy
and Sister Eleanor. Their organizational skills
and the thoroughness of their preparation laid to rest any fears that I harbored. The change in leadership from Sister Eleanor to
Sister Susan, and now to Darren Streff did not in any way deter from the
integrity of the Mission.
Each trip generated wonderful memories of encounters
that forever left their mark on me. The cultural differences between El
Salvador and the United States are stark, but the contacts with the people showed me how closely as human beings we are all connected. Salvadorans are a warm,
compassionate people who were so appreciative of our being there;
many shared gifts that were modest, but given with such sincerity
that they remain some of my most treasured possessions.
I saw many disorders
that were rare in the US and many that were medically challenging. For
instance, parasitic disease is rampant in the
children since the water is untreated, and exposure to cooking smoke
generates prevalent reactive airway disease. I
frequently saw GI illness due to poor sanitation and many skin
conditions (mostly infection) because of lack of hygiene. And
there were those cases of rare diseases that were quite challenging;
i.e., congenital hypothyroidism (cretin), undiagnosed encephalocoele,
retrolental fibroplasia, SLE, arthrogryposis multiplex congenita, and
the list goes on.
All of us who participated came away from the
mission better global citizens, perhaps more compassionate about the
international human condition, and appreciative of the strength and
courage of people who endure in conditions that most of us have not seen
nor experienced. In addition we developed an
appreciation for cultural diversity and learned to practice medicine with limited resources and lack of
support diagnostic services (imagine, no access to MRI, etc.!) For
many, it was a spiritual experience. I feel strongly that
all of us who practice medicine from every discipline should participate
in international medicine….all will be better human beings for doing
so.
And for those skeptics who feel that we really can't do much with
such compromised infrastructure, and lack
of services I would counter with a statement from Sister Margaret Jane Kling whom I
met in El Salvador: I had told her that I wasn't sure that I did very
much to improve the health of the people, to which she replied: "it
isn't what you do, it's who you are."
