![\"cure-hospital-dominican-republic-prayer-before-surgery\"](\"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/amyfish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/50\/2015\/11\/cure-hospital-dominican-republic-prayer-before-surgery-e1446396514281.jpg\")
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I just finished my fourth week here in the DR, and every day I find myself so happy, fortunate and proud to be here.\u00a0Although I had previously lived abroad in a developing country,\u00a0I am\u00a0only just now fully understanding\u00a0the desperate need for medical missions in developing nations. This whole experience reminds me\u00a0over and over again how grateful I am to live in a country\u00a0whose medical system, while definitely flawed in its own ways,\u00a0demands regulation and standardization in the education of our physicians and of the delivery of health care in general.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I know when I go to a hospital in the US that I am going to recieve good medical care – whether I have insurance or not.\u00a0 I\u00a0naturally assume that the physicians are well-trained and competent. \u00a0I expect that if I need surgery, the surgeon will be well-educated and will have had years of residency and fellowship before practicing on his own.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Yes,\u00a0we all\u00a0have had experiences in the US where we disagreed with the physician. Yes,\u00a0we have all\u00a0had experiences where two physicians\u00a0have given\u00a0us two completely differing opinions\u00a0or plans of care.\u00a0 But, in developing countries, the discrepancy between a \u201ccompetent\u201d and \u201cincompetent\u201d physician is a whole other phenomenon that we usually don\u2019t need to worry about in the States.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
At CURE Dominicana, I see patients on\u00a0a daily basis\u00a0who were\u00a0initially treated (or more accurately, not treated) at another hospital by an unqualified surgeon.\u00a0\u00a0The patients then\u00a0find out about CURE after the fact and come to our surgeons later\u00a0for either initial treatment or for a correction of a first surgery.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
For example, last Friday I met a patient named Yemen.\u00a0 Yemen comes from a small town, about 1 1\/2 hours from Santo Domingo.\u00a0 He is 17-years old and the bread-winner for his family.\u00a0 In March of this year, Yemen\u00a0got\u00a0into an accident\u00a0while working and was taken to the largest trauma hospital in the country.\u00a0 Yemen had a fractured jaw, broken ribs (?)\u00a0and a shattered left hip.\u00a0 The physicians at the hospital addressed the fractured jaw and ribs, but did not even take an x-ray of his hip.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
When Yemen continued to complain of hip pain, they x-rayed his hip and found it was badly fractured.\u00a0 But, they told him they could not operate since he would likely die on the OR table.\u00a0 So, instead, the doctors put a cast on Yemen\u2019s\u00a0CALF.\u00a0 Obviously, the cast did nothing for his fractured hip and later the doctors removed the cast and sent him home with a brace for the calf instead.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Luckily for Yemen, he was fortunate to meet Kristin, a missionary here, who had worked with a previous CURE patient, and directed Yemen and his family to CURE.\u00a0 Approximately five months after Yemen\u2019s injury, \u00a0he finally had surgery to reconstruct his\u00a0hip. \u00a0Yemen is now approximately three weeks post-op and he came to physical therapy for the first time last Friday for gait training with crutches.\u00a0 He will be\u00a0non-weight bearing on the left leg for at least three months, but \u00a0walk again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I just finished my fourth week here in the DR, and every day I find myself so happy, fortunate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/amyfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/amyfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/amyfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/amyfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/amyfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/amyfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/amyfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/amyfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/amyfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}