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Family Physicians make annual mission trip to Mexico
For the last 13 years, family physicians from Cook County have made an annual March mission trip to Mexico. Board member Steve Stabile, M.D. has been a regular on these missions. This year Juliet Bradley, M.D. went for the first time. IAFP spoke with Dr. Bradley on March 24 to find out about their experience. The mission group includes family physicians, a pediatrician, nurses, dentists and dental hygienists and optometrists. The family physicians this year were Anne Jacobson, M.D.; Steve Menhennett, M.D.; Alfredo Ovalle, M.D. along with Stabile and Bradley. They work in an area which is called the Valley of Uxpanapa (Uxpanapa is a large river in Mexico). It is a very remote area near the border of the state of Chiapas in southern Mexico. It was fairly uninhabited until about 20-25 years ago when the federal government relocated indigenous people there. Getting to the valley is half the fun. According to Dr. Bradley, the journey starts with a flight to Mexico City, then a nine hour bus ride to the town of Chinantla. There they hook up with Fran Galinatti, M.D., who is an American physician and a Catholic nun. Dr. Stabile says, "She is a trained internist and oncologist, but a family doc at heart." She has been working in these communities for the past 17 years. The mission is coordinated in conjunction with and under the auspices of the State of VeraCruz Department of Health. At Chinantla they gather supplies and additional volunteers, then load their pickup trucks for another three-hour ride to Pablado Quatorze. The mission works with the Zoques who are indigenous from Chiapas. They were relocated when a volcano erupted in 1982 destroying parts of their homeland. They also work with the Chinatecos who were relocated from the state of Oaxaca when the government built a dam that destroyed some of their homeland. Many of the people speak only their indigenous languages, which is not Spanish. Even though Bradley and Stabile both speak fluent Spanish, it wasn’t much help to them here. They set up clinic at an open-air community center with donated medicine and supplies they’ve purchased for this clinic. The physicians see patients from sun-up to sundown, then after dark they work by a single 40 watt light bulb, flashlights and headlights. They bathed in the river, where villagers also do their laundry and wash their dishes. Next, the mission group headed to Progresso in the Zona Zoque. This time they set up shop in a church. People would walk for hours to get to the clinic, knowing this was one time they could get care for the year. The mission volunteers provide basic primary care - addressing common problems of malnutrition, intestinal worms and parasites and anemia. Bradley says they did a large amount of pap smears. Then Dr. Galinatti returns occasionally to provide follow-up care. One thing that really struck Bradley was that large families were the absolute norm in the village. "I was impressed by the huge families. The smallest one I met was four children. Most families had around ten children each." The dentists, dental hygienists and optometrists, stay very busy with corrective help, which really makes a difference. Stabile estimates that all together they see several thousand patients during the week-long trips. "It was amazing. Like anything in family medicine you see that health conditions are truly a direct relationship to the environment," says Bradley. "We treated worms, anemia and malnutrition – all of which are products of the poor water supply. It is just like we see in Chicago that the diabetes, obesity, asthma and high blood pressure are directly related to our community and environment here." Asked if she would do it again, Bradley said she would. "The people we cared for were wonderful and the physicians and providers we worked with were incredible."
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