Pub. 3 2019 Issue 1

H ello, my name is Blake Taylor. I am a second year family medicine resident training at the Utah Valley Hospital in Provo, Utah. In November 2018, a small team of pro- viders including myself, Chris Robert- son (a fellow resident), Rob Mehl, MD (Utah Valley Family Medicine Program Director) and Susan Chasson, NP participated in a 10-day international medical trip to Guatemala, organized by Humanitize Expedition. During medical school I was drawn to family medicine for many reasons, one of which included the opportunity to be involved with international medicine, especially in Central and South Ameri- ca. Over 15 years ago I was exposed to the Latino culture while serving an LDS mission in California and it was during this time that I developed a deep love for the Latino people. Now as a resident physician, I see roughly 50-60 percent Latino patients, and there is a sublime joy that comes from being their doctor. Naturally, when the opportunity to pro- vide medical care to the people of Gua- temala presented itself, I was more than excited to get involved. We arrived in Guatemala and were met by two large vans who picked up our team and traveled a few hours to the site of our clinic in the smaller town of Los Robles, near Lake Atit- lán. The clinic is a standalone build- ing adjacent to an orphanage. It has a single exam room with one table (do- nated years ago). Inside the clinic is an almost fully-functional pharmacy that grows with each visit. The won- derful thing about the clinic is that every three months, Humanitize and other teams return to provide care. Therefore, there is a small patient panel with chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension that are managed by the clinic. Each patient is given a piece of paper that con- tains their medical history and recent medications, and on return visits the paper tracks the patient’s care. Each morning we would meet to set up teams. One team stayed at our clinic and the other gathered supplies to travel to a remote part of the country for the day. On the first day, Rob and I, (with two nurses and a support team) traveled two hours to the highlands of Guatemala. Upon our arrival, we were greeted by the villagers who were wait- ing to be seen. Almost every woman we saw had a chief complaint of head- aches. It was apparent that most suf- fered from dehydration as they all re- ported only drinking 1-2 cups water a day while walking in the hot sun, usual- ly with a child on their back and supply basket on their heads. Tylenol, to these women, is a miracle drug. We educated them on the importance of drinking water, but even I knew in the moment that they most likely would not be able to fulfill this recommendation as run- ning water is not a readily accessible By Blake Taylor, DO Back To (Medical) Basics in Guatemala www.UtahAFP.org | 24