Posted on 09/14/2005 10:07:08 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
OAXACA CITY, Mexico — They were lined up by sunrise, many ill, some blind, some nearly deaf.
The hopeful steadied themselves on canes, clutched family or shifted their feet.
The array of ailments and concerns of the Oaxaca state residents weren't the result of a natural disaster but par for life in rural Mexico.
A balanced meal is a luxury. Tap water is nasty. Good medical care is as rare as a well-paying job.
News that Los Quijotes, a group of San Antonio doctors, nurses and support staff, were here to treat the needy seemed too good to be true for 85 patients who gathered early on a recent morning.
"We can take it," Fulgencia Gijón Hernández, 89, said when asked if she and a friend, also 89, could handle the wait.
"I do not hear well, can only see out of one eye and have problems with these veins," she said.
Nearby, a grandmother held Rubí Araceli, a 10-month-old girl wearing hoop earrings whose eyes were cloudy white.
She said she was told the girl was blind for life, but wondered if the Americans could help.
And so young and old alike, about 500 patients a day, made their way to the five-day clinic put on by volunteers who paid their own expenses.
They were armed with about $100,000 worth of donated medications along with medical equipment and about 1,000 pairs of used glasses.
"We are dreamers and, fortunately, it is contagious," said Dr. Hugo Castañeda, a San Antonio internal-medicine specialist who helped found the Quijotes, named after the literary character who fought the good fight.
"We dream about making bad things good," said Castañeda, who was born in Mexico.
This year marked the group's 17th annual visit to Mexico, and the legacy likely will continue.
A cornerstone was placed Thursday for a permanent clinic, Clinica Los Quijotes-Oaxaca, which is to be privately run and aimed at the poor.
It is to be paid for in part by a matching program in which the Mexican government puts in $3 for every dollar donated for community projects.
Reflecting on the timing of their work, some Quijotes volunteers said they would have helped Americans recovering from Hurricane Katrina, but the Oaxaca commitment was already made.
Some said they had asked how to help hurricane victims early on but there was no clear plan for where they should go — and they were warned not to rush into the disaster, or they risked becoming victims themselves.
So they went where they were guaranteed to do some good.
They worked from a makeshift clinic on the grounds of a church community center.
Gynecologists, ophthalmologists, pharmacists, dentists, lab technicians, a neurosurgeon and nurses were among the 55 San Antonians.
"This is about as primitive as it gets," said Dr. Javier Garcia, a dentist, as he prepared to remove a tooth from a woman sitting on a folding chair perched in front of an open window for light.
"The first two or three days it pumps me up," Garcia said of the challenge of treating so many people. "The last two, it is, 'Oh no,' but I get energy from everyone else."
The environment was free of many office stresses, as most patients were grateful for free treatment, he said.
Mexico has a government health system, but requires people to pay premiums.
Dr. Diana Ballesteros, a faculty member with Christus Santa Rosa Health Care, said she was glad to help, even if in some instances the relief would be temporary and without future care.
"I try to dispel falsehoods they have been told by friends, family and other physicians," she said, noting that among women there were many complaints of "bad kidneys," when what they had were bad backs from hauling water and firewood.
In some cases, patients hadn't seen a doctor in years.
"They get our attention," she said. "Let me tell you, they tell us as much as they can."
Back outside, Saraid León Vargas, 26, held a place in line for her paralyzed father.
"A lot of us do not have money. We can not afford our own doctors," she said.
She was not sure who the Quijotes were, but heard they were foreign and better trained and equipped than Mexican doctors.
The Quijotes saw only patients given admission tickets by local officials. They said they wanted to treat the needy and not be abused by better-off patients trolling for second opinions from American doctors.
As Dr. Roberto San Martin, an ophthalmologist, waited after putting drops in a woman's eyes to check the spread of diabetes, he said people question why the Quijotes volunteer in a country where there is so much need they can't begin to make a dent in it.
"It is not hopeless for those you help," he said.
Yolanda Hernández, a registered nurse with Christus Santa Rosa, found her calling treating the poor, and if she had enough money, she'd travel the world helping those most in need.
She told of a case in which a woman needed medication for a son who was in a car accident.
The Quijotes didn't have the medication, but student volunteers pitched in.
The woman soon had more than enough money to buy it at a pharmacy. Tears rolled down her cheeks as well as those of a volunteer.
"The lady was crying and kissing them," Hernández recalled. "Look, I'm getting goose bumps."
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express@cablevision.net.mx
Owl_Eagle
(If what I just wrote makes you sad or angry,
Um, are you feeling OK?
Volunteers Ping!
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off this South Texas/Mexico ping list.
Vicente Fox, like his predecessors, has been a complete failure to even try to lead his country out of poverty, with the exception of exporting it here.
If I'm not mistaken, and I may be because I'm not looking at a map of Mexico, this is an extremely poor area that has been Marxist awhile. And Muslims have had a lot of success here. Central American brew for terrorists. It's not a bad idea to help people there, although I'm not sure how to go about it.
American medical workers: doing the job that Vincente Fox won't.
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