Spring Break Adventures: Dominican Republic
A professor and a student in Bradley’s DPT (doctor of physical therapy) are joining a medical team on a week-long mission trip to the Dominican Republic. Heather Hall, DPT ’11 will blog about her experiences in the Caribbean from March 14-22.
From Heather Hall, DPT ‘11…
This was our last day working in the San Juan de la Maguana area. Today Cheryl and I packed up with Dr. Jim Ausfahl and several nurses to travel an hour and a half to Vallejuelo, located in the rural mountain area south of San Juan. The local school allowed us to use their facility to assess and treat patients with various medical complaints.
Though on the map the road to Vallejuelo looked like a major highway, by our standards it was little more than a partially paved country road. The school we worked in was a set of concrete block buildings with open windows and doors, and even open walls. Several hundred people showed up hoping to see the ‘medicos,’ who were there to provide the health care service that to us in the United States is considered routine, but for many of them is very nearly nonexistant. Around one hundred individuals were seen and treated in the six hours we were in Vallejuelo.
In addition to serving the health care needs of the people, we were entertained by the local wildlife. Tarantulas are common to the Dominicans, who have no problem taunting the spiders or letting them crawl across them. The tarantula we saw was only a baby, but it was big enough to make an impression! We also celebrated our time here with a Dominican dinner out, complete with rice, beans, salad and meat. The time spent in San Juan has opened our eyes to another outlook on the world, something we will not quickly forget!
From Heather Hall, DTP ‘11…
This morning I went to the open-air market to experience how the Dominican people buy necessities. The fresh fruit and grains filled an entire city block and one of the streets overflowed with piles of shoes and clothes. If you wanted to buy fresh meat, chopped goat, pork, and beef were available, as well as newly plucked whole chickens. Clementine oranges grew to three times the size of the ones in the United States, and mangoes, papayas and bananas by the stalk spilled out of the booths.
The people were very gracious and let us take many pictures of them. Overall, today was spent getting a glimpse into the lives and livelihoods of the Dominican people, whose material lives may look different from ours, but whose hearts are filled with the same joys and personal struggles we know.
There was an overcast sky this morning, which is unusual for the Dominican Republic this time of year. I knew today would be different from all the others. Much of our day was spent at the local Christian school where many of the children are sponsored by individuals in the United States. It is considered one of the best schools in the city, and students have gone on to become doctors, nurses, lawyers, and translators for the medical clinic. Several of the individuals on this trip sponsor children at the school and hosted a party this evening to meet with them. We were able to provide each family with food for more than a week, as well as several gifts for each child!
While we were at the school, we also had the opportunity to teach some of the staff therapeutic exercises and to talk with some of the students. One of the high school students, Charlie, spent several minutes practicing his English and asking questions about us and our lives. It was such a great experience to be able to spend time getting to know the students and nurture relationships that will hopefully last a lifetime!
From Heather Hall, DPT ‘11…
One of the doctors on our trip to the Dominican Republic is a plastic surgeon, Dr. Eric Lomax. He was kind enough to allow other trip members to observe and assist in his surgeries. This morning was my morning to help him and his wife, Deb, in surgery.
Jessica, a nursing student from Graham Hospital in Canton, joined me, and together we saw how incredibly different it is to perform surgery here than in the United States. Most of the supplies have been donated from clinics and hospitals in the United States, so sometimes the surgeons have to ‘make do’ with whatever tools are available. Still, the job gets done!
The first surgery I saw was a scar revision for a woman who had been cut with a knife when she was a child, followed by a nose reconstruction for a man who had been in a motorcycle accident thirty years ago. The most involved surgery of the day was for a teenage girl from Haiti who had been born with two noses and was undergoing surgery to remove the deformity and reconstruct her nose as well. Unfortunately, because of limited resources, only half of the scheduled surgeries could be done today, but the surgery on the little girl’s nose from Haiti was a success after four hours.
After lunch I rejoined Bob Benningfield, DC, to teach patients exercises and stretching techniques. In the evening most of our group walked through San Juan de la Maguana to shop for gifts to give some of the local children and try a scoop of Dominican ice cream. According to our trip leader, ice cream has only existed in the Dominican Republic for around fifteen years! It’s hard to believe that so much has happened in so little time, and I am excited to see what will happen next.
From Heather Hall, DPT ‘11…
I studied Spanish for two years in high school and had a quick refresher course a few months ago, but none of that prepared me to be able to do physical therapy in another language. Most of the day we had a translator with us, but we used every opportunity possible to learn key words: “stand up,” “bend,” “pain,” and “exercises” were some of the favorites. When I imagined working in a clinic in the Dominican Republic, I hadn’t pictured three Americans trying to act out a hip stretch, but when the idea finally got across, it was all worth it!
Most of the patients seen by Cheryl Sparks, PT ‘98, Dr. Bob Bettingfield, chiropractor, and myself were not in severe pain and were easily treated with manipulations and exercises. Some, however, will require surgery.
One gentleman was already scheduled for surgery when we saw him. He had had neurological fibromitosis for over thirty-five years and suffered from back pain because of a large tumor on his lower leg that kept him from walking correctly. When we saw him, the growth was so severe that he was unable to lift his leg onto the examining table! Hopefully, when we see him next, he will be on his way to recovery and to a much better quality of life.
We were also able to distribute some of the packets of toothpaste, deodorant, and vitamins to the people who came to the clinic. It took a lot of unexpected effort to explain to every parent that each child should only take one vitamin every day! Still, at the end of the day, we had seen many people walk away with reduced pain and equipped to keep their bodies strong.
From Heather Hall, DPT ‘11…
Day One actually began at 12:30 a.m. Saturday in a church parking lot in Peoria. We stood shivering around our bus as 56 pieces of luggage filled with 50 pounds each of medical and school supplies were loaded, and tried to catch some sleep during the ride to O’Hare International Airport. Our group made it through security and onto the plane without incident, but the plane never made it out of the gate. There was an un-fixable problem with the luggage compartment, so we were disembarked and rebooked on a different flight. Unfortunately, the delay caused us to miss our connecting flight in Miami to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; but against all odds all 28 of us were given seats together on a later flight. We arrived safely several hours later with all of our luggage and climbed into two more buses for the three-hour drive to San Juan de la Maguana. After just over 24 hours of travel, we finally pulled into our destination!
Sunday morning we awoke to roosters and sunshine calling us to breakfast. The guesthouse we are staying in is connected to a medical clinic and set up with a guarding wall surrounding them both. After breakfast we left the walls behind and wandered through the town to see the plaza, barios, and visit a local church. Everywhere we went, the Dominican people knew we were Americans and waved, smiled, and practiced their English with us. In the afternoon we unpacked the suitcases we’d filled with supplies, and piled and sorted them into smaller packages to hand out during the week. It was amazing to see the piles of toothbrushes, shampoo, vitamins, and Band-Aids overflowing onto the floor and know that these small items would make a huge difference, maybe to some of the people we had met earlier in the day.
Tonight we had our first patient of the trip, from a motorcycle spill that took place next to one of the clinic trucks on the way back from church. In the Dominican Republic, only the driver is required to wear a seatbelt. The five people in the truck cab and nine in the truck bed, most of whom were medical personnel, all jumped out to help the accident victim. The doctors and nurses were able to pick him up, stitch him up, and send him home the same night. While we weren’t expecting to start treating people so soon, everyone was thankful that he was OK. Because it is not uncommon to see between 60 to 70 people lined up at the clinic when a medical team is in town, the plan tonight is to get a good night’s sleep before beginning the treatments we came to provide!
From Heather Hall, DPT ‘11…
I am finishing up my first year in Bradley’s Doctor of Physical Therapy program. At the end of 2008, I found out about a mission trip to the Dominican Republic that was taking health care professionals to work in a severely underserved area. I studied intercultural relations during my undergraduate work, and was very excited about the opportunity to combine working in other cultures with what I had learned about physical therapy!
One of my professors, Cheryl Sparks, PT ‘98, will be going on the trip so I’ll have a chance to work with patients under her supervision. We’ll be with a medical team consisting of a general practitioner, chiropractor, plastic surgeons, and several nurses at Solid Rock Mission’s clinic in San Juan de la Maguana. People will also be working on a construction project at the same time. Our plans are to work with the surgeon and chiropractor to teach strengthening exercises and help with patient care. We also plan to travel a few hours from the clinic to check for individuals who might need surgeries that can be performed later in the year.
Our hope is that by providing these services, we will be giving people the opportunity to have their lives changed. I have never been to the Dominican Republic, but what has been described to me is nothing like what I have seen in the United States. I am so excited to see what will happen during our time there and am glad that you, too, will be able to experience it through my eyes!
