WORDS FROM MURIEL LAVERTY, OUR CONTACT IN NICARAGUA
My name is Muriel Laverty, a registered nurse from Massachusetts, now retired to Nicaragua. I have had a medical foundation since 1999, www.thesiunafoundation.org, whose mission is to bring medical care and education to the poorest of the poor in Central America. We have a maternity clinic and two schools in Siuna, Nicaragua., and every year we host many medical teams who come to work with us in poor pueblos. This work is now my full time commitment.One of our most wonderful experiences is working with the SVOSH medical teams from Ohio State University. There is such consistent commitment and energy and a desire to learn and help others in this group. By working in the most remote pueblos in Central America, often helping people who have never seen a doctor before, these students are seeing pathology they would not see in the United States.
With the increasing immigrant populations coming from Central and South America, young doctors from the SVOSH program will be able to recognize eye diseases that many older doctors have never seen before. Because of their service and education received here at our clinics, they will bring to their profession, a richness and dedication unparalleled. I personally would love to see every medical student rotate through a clinical experience in a third world country. I can not think of a better investment in the future.
I find that the contribution of the students and doctors from the SVOSH program goes far beyond treating poor patients for eye disease. These doctors and students bring to the people a kindness from the United States. They represent the goodness and advanced medical technology of our country. One little old lady who had not been able to see in years, had the gift of sight restored, and she blessed us with a huge smile of such joy. In many of these remote pueblos, the value of a person depends on what they can contribute. For the elderly, picking stones out of the rice or beans is sedentary, contributory task, but without sight, it is not possible. Now with glasses and/or medicines, sight is restored and so is the sense of self worth.
The students also help dispel many myths and bad medicine that in some areas is accepted as a reality. For example in the SVOSH clinic in Masatepe in 2006, we found an elderly male patient with a raging eye infection. Someone had cut off his eye lids as a “cure”. He came to us not only with the infection, but now unable to close his eyes. The SVOSH team responded with kindness and the best medical attention they could give. With each patient, the students have an opportunity to bring education and care that reduces the impact of endemic diseases like toxoplasmosis and blindness due to exposure to the sun.
Blindness is often preventable if basic public health and wearing of sunglasses is done. The SVOSH teach each patient these things. This year in Sebaco, we encountered a large pocket of albino patients, and they were given their first pair of sunglasses and for the first time heard about their condition.
When we hold a clinic, each mayor of the area announces to the public the times and dates for the clinic. With each opening day, there is a long line of patients waiting to be seen. There may be a thousand patients in line with the ability to see about 350 of them on any given day. The skills of triage, organization of the clinic and working under pressure for 8-10 hours a day in hot tropical climates are hard won. The students endure many hardships of heat and insects to deliver precious medical care.
In summary, the SVOSH teams are wonderful and make a profound impact on the lives of poor people, many of whom walk several days out of the mountains to get care. These patients are the disenfranchised, neglected by the government, deprived of educational opportunities and medical care. How beautiful it is to see the efforts of SVOSH bring about such good results! These patients are seen for free, given medicines and glasses for free. Many of these poor make maybe $50 a month, and a visit to an optometrist would cost over $300 for a visit and glasses. Without SVOSH, these people would never receive medical care.
