Clinic in Panajachel on Friday!

Yesterday we held a clinic with the combined help of Dr. Eric from Austin, Texas who came from the group, Paz y Salud, Dr. Fatim, who came from the group , Connexiones from Canada and four wonderful nurses who came from Connie Turvey's group, Connexiones and Salud y Paz.

The nurses checked out all the children at the pre-school and they all , we are happy to report, had nothing more than coughs from a common cold.


This is our daughter, Zoe who took the day off school to do community service and help to translate.
Below also is Joaquin who is a new Mayan Families employee. He is fluent in Spanish/English and Kakchiquel and was a great help at the clinics.

We arranged a house call for an elderly woman, around 85 yrs old, that we heard was very ill in bed.
Fatim found that the woman had pnuemonia, was very dehydrated and had not eaten in four days. She was unable to walk. We called the ambulance and had her taken to the private clinic in Panajachel. She had never been to a clinic before and was very anxious about having to spend the night there.
Late yesterday afternoon, when we checked at the clinic, she was doing much better.
She was being hydrated and taking antibiotics. They are expecting to release her today.

While the clinic was happening we received a call from San Jorge that the mother of another of our sponsored students was coughing up blood. We arranged for her to be picked up and brought to the clinic. The doctor suspects that she has Tuberculosis and we have arranged for her to have the tests done this coming Monday.


This mother of several of our sponsored students was very weak when she arrived. Two weeks ago had a miscarriage and she was continuing to bleed. She had not been able to afford medical treatment and we were very glad to be able to provide this service for her.

Just these three patients alone make having the clinics worthwhile but many other people were treated, given medications, reassurances and helped along the road to good health.