Esquintla

Dear Colleagues, Family and Friends,

We arrived at the hospital doors today in the town of Esquintla. A sign at the entrance to the pediatric emergency department read, in Spanish, “We want to help. We know how to help. We don’t have the means.”  It was a heartbreaking statement that was realized during our tour of the facility. 

Dr. Willey, the attending pediatrician at the hospital, presented statistics regarding health care in Guatemala. The stat that became embedded in my memory is that there is a 40% mortality rate for the patients in the NICU.

Dr. Willey is gracious and appreciative. He greeted each of us with a smile, a handshake and a ‘beso’ on the cheek. He walked us into the NICU which was a dimly-lit room with shared space for five babies and mold invading the ceiling in the far corner. Dr. Willey indicated that one ventilator is shared by two or three patients – and for minutes, hours, shifts, days, staff provide manual ventilation for the babies in the NICU. I thought back to the statistics and realized that two of the five babies in that very room would not survive. I cried.   

At points on our tour, we stepped over fallen ceiling tiles, and we waited for a pioneering employee to pull cables out of the electrical sockets so we could pass safely through a hallway where he was fixing a piece of equipment. Even with all of this going on, Dr. Willey emanated hope by saying construction is underway for a new PICU which will be triple the size of the current space and much cleaner. 

I am writing this post cautiously and protecting my heart. It is difficult to put this experience into words. I was grateful for my teammates today.  We held hands and, like Dr. Willey, tried to convey hope. 

With Gratitude,

Linsey Hamilton