ChesterCountyMedicineSummer2019 - 24

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Medical Missionaries

HONDURAS
BY GEORGE TRAJTENBERG, MD

I

n Honduras, Central America, in the mountains at 2.5 hours
from SanPedro Sula there is a small town called La Entrada.

12 years ago dentist Dr. Bob Sumner and his organization
Serving at the Crossroads helped to build a clinic in the area, very
much needed in a country where Health Care is the poorest in
the world. The counterpart foundation in La Entrada is Manos
Amigas (Friendly Hands) and is the name of the clinic also.
The Board of Manos Amigas that runs the clinic includes local
business people and professionals of that area.

Clinic Manos Amigas in La Entrada, Honduras.

The clinic is staffed by 3 Honduran family doctors, many
nurses, optometrist, and several dentists. The clinic was visited in
2018 by 25,000 patients.
There are 4 dental chairs, and local dentists that have been
helped by dentists from West Chester are providing an excellent
dental care.
Most of the patients come from local villages, mostly land
labor workers, some come from 2 hours away. Many are illiterate
and they have had poor to no medical care in their lives.
Patients pay a minimal amount of "lempiras" to be seen in the
clinic, but no one is turned away because of the inability to pay.

Surgical team: from left to right
David Goodroad, Bobbi Hess, Angela
Evans RN, Inger Goodroad RN, Kirby
Tirk MD, George Trajtenberg MD,
Becca Paterson, Jewel Campbell RN,
Paula Sinclair RN, Julius Heyman MD,
Lani Heyman RN, Jodi Sandherr PA.

24 CHESTER COUNT Y Medicine | SUMMER 2019

The 3 local doctors that staff the clinic, during the year collect
the information of the patients that need surgery (all cases that are
elective and can wait) until our surgical mission (brigade) arrives,
usually during the months of February and April every year for
the last 7 years. For now all the operations we do are ambulatory
because there is not an overnight facility, but this is changing,
this year they annexed to the clinic a building that was built by
volunteers from USA and people from Honduras and has 3 new
Operating Rooms, Recovery area, etc. The plan for the future
is to have more missions of different specialties (Gyn, Urology,
Orthopedics, etc.) to be there yearly, and eventually the wishes of
the Board of Manos Amigas is to become a Hospital.
The follow up after surgery is done by the local doctors,
and now with the advantage of telecommunication as Skype
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