February 2, 2014 Sergio's Keen Eye

 Sunday Feb 2, 2014

Sergio playfully uses his museo camera to photograph Ricci.

Our work week ends on Saturday night.  The day-time patient load is constant and fortunately the evening patient visits vary and Saturday night was lighter than usual.

A visit to el campo, a family grows their own vegetables: cauliflower.

This is the high season for San Cristobal due to the cool temperatures and fortunately tourism is moderately bustling.  Sergio has given evening tours at least 4 times this week and our being there caring for patients frees him up to give more attention to his visitors.

While he was ocupado with a tour, a new patient arrived with an poorly healing abdominal surgical wound. This the story of this ~38 year old male:
Nine months ago he had his gallbladder removed and 6 months later he complained of abdominal pain and returned to the hospital. They found the surgeon left a gauze in his abdominal cavity and it became entangled around his intestines requiring another abdominal surgery and partial removal of his small intestines.  Now he has one vertical abdominal scar and one horizonal scar that have not healed over the last 3 months. The patient is unable to work and the surgeon is requiring the patient to pay 250 pesos ($20USDs) per visit to help heal these unclosed wounds.

He shows up on Don Sergio's doorstep asking for help. With Sergio just starting his tour, knowing he'd be at least 40 -50 minutes, of course we cleaned the wound, dressed the wound and told him to return tomorrow.  What would these people do without Don Sergio?: they would suffer unnecessarily.

Our evaluation revealed his wounds have a build up of bacterial slim which need cleansing and application of a topical antibiotic and the appropriate dressing to allow drainage. However, the following day, Don Sergio's keen eye and experience revealed he had a tunneling effect, hence the tunnel is probably coated with slimy bacterial debris as well. I am confident this man will achieve good results with Don Sergio's care.

Sergio has started a well project between Zinicantan and Chamula.

Near the catchment tank, the locals leave their water containers to collect water.

This is the catchment tank they obtain their water.

After moving to Tucson in 2009 I have been fortunate to meet many wonderful medical professionals, several of which have become good friends. One fellow PA, Ricci Silberman, I met at Clinica Amistad: Tucson's free evening clinic for the low-income uninsured.  I was thrilled to see another PA volunteering for the under-served and knowing she worked full-time I asked why volunteer at this clinic, she simply answered "it's the right thing to do".  Four years later here we are in San Cristobal extending our skills beyond Tucson.

Amigos.

Ricci leaves tomorrow and returns to her full-time practice and I will remain the rest of week. Bela has made her stay comfortable and welcoming and had an immediate connection their being from the same generation. The charm of this city, the people, working with Don Sergio I hope have a tug on her heart to return.  Mil gracias Ricci, eres una santa.