Tyrus Park & Jessica Osterman volunteers of Ecotrackers in the Esmeraldas Hospital

It is hard to believe that a time period as short as three weeks is enough to change someone forever, but after spending the last three weeks in the town of Esmeraldas on the coast of Ecuador we can confidently say that we have changed. Working in the hospital in Esmeraldas was easily one of the most amazing and eye-opening experiences; to have the opportunity to see physicians do so much with so little and to see the impact they made on the community was incredible. Before departing for Esmeraldas, we were told by Dr. Moreno, the director of Ecotrackers, that we would have the opportunity to experience the ¨Medicine of War,¨ however, neither of us realized the magnitude of what we would see over the following three weeks. On our first Friday night at the hospital, we were thrown into the emergency room setting, not really knowing what to expect. Several births and stab wounds later we were performing our first pelvic exams, helping in the delivery room and practicing the different types of sutures on a piece of denim. And that was all the first night. Over the course of the three weeks, we had the opportunity to interact with doctors, medical students and nurses in the hospital, improve our Spanish and practice medicine in a more natural setting without the reliance on machines and computers. In Esmeraldas, we were afforded many more opportunities for patient interaction than we would have had in the States. Before our three weeks had ended we had had the opportunity to suture patients, scrub in for a Cesarean surgery, deliver babies and assist on various other minor procedures and surgeries. By the end of our three weeks we had become fixtures in both the hospital and community which was a wonderful feeling of accomplishment after such a short time. One night towards the end of our trip we were eating dinner and a woman came up to us with her lab results and asked if we were doctors and if we could look at her results for her. It was an incredible feeling to earn the trust and confidence of the residents of a city like Esmeraldas, and we owe them a thank you in return for allowing us to further our medical knowledge through them.
Though the travel guides we had looked through described Esmeraldas as one of the more dangerous and poorer cities in Ecuador, the people we met and later called friends showed a sense of kindness and compassion that would be considered amazing in any circumstance. The faculty at the hospital met us with open arms and open minds and quickly made us feel comfortable working side by side with them. They were patient in their lessons and demonstrated a MacGyver-ness not often seen in medicine in the States, using what little resources they had to help the many around them. Every item was utilized and adapted to perform its expected task as well as a dozen newly invented ones. The hospital functioned fluidly amidst the frequent glimpses of chaos, as the emergency room filled with deliveries, gun shot wounds, stab victims, and many other common weekend injuries. Through the 24 hour shifts, the blood, and the sweat the faculty was able to maintain their spirit and sense of humour each day. They felt more like a group of close friends gathered together rather than individuals hired to perform a service. Though we were there for only a short time, we left Esmeraldas with the tremendous feeling that comes from doing something that is simultaneously both scary and enjoyable, as well as with the weight of many new friendships.
Names: Tyrus Park & Jessica Osterman
Country: United States
Date: July 14th 2005Click here to get more information on the community

Keira Robinsonn in The Esmeraldas Hospital as an Ectrackers volunteer

We arrived on the coastal city of Esmeraldas with a goal in mind: to investigate the workings of the Hospital del Torres and to possibly define a role for future volunteers at this hospital.
Although a city plagued with poverty, and epidemics of dengue fever and malaria, the locals don’t allow this to hinder their enthusiasm for life! They are always having a wonderful time, enjoying their music in the streets and partying on the beach! The people in Esmeraldas were so welcoming, friendly and warm despite the underlying problems. It made our stay that much more enjoyable.
Upon our arrival, we met with the director of the hospital in order to discuss our role and our week-long goals. We continued by speaking to all of the major heads of the departments, the nurses and the medical students, attending lectures and meetings and examining statistical charts and flow charts of the inner-workings of the hospital.
Regrettably, the hospital is not for the weak-at-heart. Nicknamed Hospital de la Guerra, there are many violent crime cases that are referred here. In addition, several cases of tropical disease exist. The hospital is lacking in major monetary funding from the government. The consensus of the staff with whom we spoke, is that this lack of funding is a major obstruction that has lead to serious disturbances in the treatment of patients as well as mass frustration on the part of the treating physicians and nurses. Often times, one single nurse will be left to cover four floors comprising over 50 patients. Furthermore, patients often do not possess the funds for necessary medical treatment and obviously preventable mortalities are occurring.
This hospital would seriously benefit from international collaboration, either in the form of medical student volunteers, in addition to international exchange programs with major universities or medical organizations.
There are roughly five units of specialization: obstetrics, obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics, tropical and communicable disease, and surgery. The hospital staff was more than willing to allow observers and in some cases trained participants in all areas. All areas require help. Furthermore, a system for the recording of necessary hospital statistics exists, but is in serious need of improvement. Statistics are entered by hand and the data are raw. There are many important missing factors and many errors in this data. An IT programmer, statistician or epidemiologist familiar with statistical software and programming is required to facilitate a program for easy entry and computation of hospital statistics. Furthermore, scientific researchers interested in anything from tropical diseases, parasitic infections, surgeries, teenage births, or miscarriages would have accessible data at this hospital. There is potential for many interesting projects that may investigate relationships between individual or community demographics, such as diet, or net income to a wide variety of outcomes. The size and manageability of the admittances to the hospital make many projects feasible.
Name: Keira Robinson
Country: Canada
Date: 30th June 2005Click here to get more information on the community