We had a very successful first day of clinics in Honduras!
Most members of the group ventured into the mountains to the town of San Sebastian, where we were greeted by a group of close to 250 children and their families. The local elementary school allowed all children to attend clinic for the day! Local volunteers helped guide the flow of traffic and register patients for both the medical and dental teams, and members from the Centro de Salud graciously leant us their clinical space.
Families waiting in line to see the Pediatric Medical and Dental Teams
The medical team saw over 100 patients. Many children today were suffering with viral infections, fevers, and asthma. We also saw children with severe dental abscess, skin infections, and learning problems.
Our dental team worked next door in very nice clinic space with a proper dental chair and even air-conditioning! Their service was quite popular, and they got plenty of referrals from the medical team as many of the children's teeth are in very poor condition. They did, unfortunately, have to do extractions for some children; but they also were able to provide tooth brushes and paste, demonstrate how to brush, provide fluoride treatments, and use atraumatic restorative treatment (ART) as well! Three local dentists also joined our team in clinic and two have volunteered to join us again in clinic tomorrow!
Three local dentists joined our team for the day!
Meanwhile, at the CRILE (Centro de Rehabilitacion Integral de Lempira) in Gracias, our Pediatric Developmental/Rehabiliation team had a busy day assessing and treating 14 children with special needs. Many of these children had extremes of developmental disorders and physical limitations from conditions such as cerebral palsy, Angelmann Syndrome, incontinentia pigmenti, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, and spina bifeda. Ashley, our physiotherapist, and Sharon, our Occupational Therapist, got creative engineering pediatric assistive equipment like seats, ankle-foot orthoses (AFOs), shoe-lifts, and hand splints.
Looking forward to another busy day tomorrow!