DAY 4 – El ULTIMO DIA (the last day)
How can it possibly be the last day?! We just got here! It seems we are just now getting our rhythm and the team is now working together seamlessly. The kinks have been worked out. The communications more effective. Yesterday and today, especially, we have been able to focus our attentions more on each individual patient’s needs and suffering. We can put ourselves, at least somewhat, into their positions in life and health so we can better understand how to help them. There is fear in some that they are losing their independence by seeking a mobility device. Others dream of being able to move about and experience their world unfettered. The children are the same all over the world. They laugh and try to engage us in their antics. Their smiles are infectious. Most are too young to appreciate there is anything different about them. They have no worries for the future. Their happiness is now. They receive their shiny new wheelchairs with wide eyes and huge smiles. Today is a special day.
The totes of medications have been repacked. The boxes of wheelchairs loaded back onto the truck. Chairs are stacked. Tables are broken down and stowed away for future trips. The floors are swept clean.
There is a happiness and a melancholy that settles on the team members. With each patient we have sought to bring smiles and even some laughter. With each patient we have sought to bring succor, relief and even hope. Many patients have been referred to FIP surgical teams for knee and hip replacement surgery. They have previously thought this impossible because of the cost. They now happily accept a walker rather than a wheelchair knowing their present pain and handicap is temporary and they will soon have no need of any aids.
Melancholy at the thought of those we could only partially help and whose illnesses and economic condition will limit their well-being. It is hard to accept that we have ‘eased their way’ somewhat as God would have wanted us to. We wish we could have done and could do, more.
I am reminded of an interview given by Dr Paul Farmer in Haiti over 2 decades ago. Dr Farmer was a world-renowned Harvard professor and expert in the treatment of drug-resistant TB and HIV. He spent a huge part of his life treating Haitian and African patients who would otherwise not have received treatment. The interviewer and Dr Farmer stood outside his clinic in Haiti looking out onto a veritable sea of patients waiting to be treated. The interviewer was overwhelmed and asked Dr Farmer how he could possibly hope to help all these people? Dr Farmer turned and responded simply and memorably – “I’ll do it one patient at a time”.
We will go home now. Our patients’ lives have been changed and ours as well. You can’t see and experience this suffering and need, try and do your part and not be changed by it.
One patient at a time.
Dr. Joseph Austin, Team Doctor, Team Leader & Blogger
