Vietnamese Houston Medical Mission
Day 1, Part 1
The first half of the day felt like we were drinking from a firehose. There was a lot going on at one time, but we all pulled together to help out around 350 patients in the town of Tabango.
5:40 AM - We get our wake up call from one of the team leads, anh Tinh. One-by-one we wake up, wash our faces, get dressed, and head out to the nearby cabana clubhouse for our catered breakfast. One of the local business owners offered to house all of us in his really nice house. Buffet breakfast and dinner are provided to us daily.
6:00 AM - Everyone is enjoying breakfast with one another and getting better acquainted. We're all anxious to get our day started, though many are still also trying to recover from jetlag. We're all in our uniform mission t-shirts.
7:00 AM - We grab our personal items, load the boxes of medicines and other necessary medical items, and board the bus. We're on our way to Tabango, which is a three hour bus ride away from Tacloban. This, and each of the other cities we'll be visiting on the rest of the trip, have been picked and coordinated by Kusog Tacloban and the local Rotary chapter because they've been underserved or not served at all after Tacloban. Reasons among them being distance and politics.
7:30 AM - We have to take a quick stop at the car depot. The separate truck carrying all of the gifts that we would be distributing at the two towns we're visiting broke down. I announce the situation and ask for all of the guys on the bus to get off and help move the large bags of gifts from the truck to the minivan that would borrow for the day. The bags of gifts are very heave, so we set up a production line to get things moving quickly.
7:45 AM - Whew...done. That was a good wake-up exercise and drill in team work. We're back on the bus and heading out to Tabango.
11:00 AM - After a 3.5hr beautiful drive through the island's highland regions, we finally make it to Tabango. It's a tiny town of around 8,000 people. Because of how far it was away from the main area, it was largely ignored by local officials and foreign aid groups. Nurses and midwives fluent in both English and Cebuano would be on hand to assist us in working with the locals.
Three large outdoor tents have been set up for us. These will house our medical, dental, and pharmacy stations. The medical, dental, and pharmacy teams immediately get to work setting up their station while Dr. Salazar and Dr./Fr. Tam go to meet and greet with the locals. Support staff help out all over the place. I'm snapping photos like crazy.
11:15 AM - No more than 15min and everyone is already operating at max capacity. The medical team is seeing what almost feels like an endless stream of patients. The two dentists are quickly assessing the worst dental cases. Each patient the dentist sees requires a tooth to be extracted. Novocain is quickly applied, and the patients have their teeth pulled in plain view of everyone. The dental team is creating quite the scene. Jeffery, one of the dentist's sons, is helping out in every way possible. I'm frantically opening packets of gauze for both for both of the dentists.
12:00 PM - No one has time for lunch. Everyone is still working very hard. Those familiar with mission trips are also familiar with this pace. Those new to the trip, both medical and non-medical, had little idea that it would be this hectic. Despite the speed, everyone is being civilized and cooperative. We have to be heavy-handed with a few locals who are trying to bully their way towards the front of the line.
The dentists are already wearing out. The heat, slight dehydration, and strength they've been applying to pull tooth after tooth is draining. We have to keep them hydrated and find them sugar to keep them going. They alternate taking quick rest breaks.
The doctors divided up into different groups. There was one doctor who specifically took care of children. Another doctor took care of more severe cases. Since no charts are needed doctors are able to treat and prescribe quickly.
The pharmacy line is long. The non-medical staff have to keep people in line and keep the line itself organized. There was a bit of a breakdown in communication and execution, so the pharmacy team stopped the line and worked together to figure out a solution.
1:00 PM - Some of the doctors are taking a quick lunch break. Not sure if the dental team was able to get their own break.
The buddhist monk on the team is going around taking pictures and engaging people standing in line. Philippines is a heavily Catholic country, so people in these small towns have never seen a monk before. They're mystified by his presence.
This entire experience is surreal. We're treating a very large amount of patients in a very short amount of time. Sure, we're tired and jeglagged, hot and dehydrated, but we're all to pumped up on excitement and adrenalyn to slow down. We're all in the zone.
1:45 PM - The lines for all three stations are still long, but operations are running as smoothly as possible for our first clinic. We're already noticing things that we can improve for next time. I've gone around an informed each station that they have to stop accepting patients at 215p, pack by 230p, and be on the bus and out by 245p.
2:00 PM - Mailinh pulled a number of patients lined up for the doctor out of line because we just weren't going to be able to see them. They've been brought over to the library to receive bags of food. Families with children also receive a kid's backpack.
Doctors have stopped seeing patients. They've jumped over to the pharmacy line to fill prescriptions and get through the still very long line. Their support helped, the line dropped in length very quickly after 10 minutes.
2:25 PM - The families in the library have received their bags of food. Some look visibly upset that they weren't seen. It's terribly unfortunately that we couldn't see everyone, but we had to stop at some point because we had to head out to the next town of Villava and get to work.
2:45 PM - We're on the bus and off to Villava.
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