Peru

Policlínico Peruano Americano: Third Quarter Progress Report and update on Mission PAMS/DRI Donation

During the time period of June through August our staff in San Clemente has been busy treating patients both at the clinic in San Clemente and through outreach clinics in the surrounding communities.

Our clinic continues to receive an average of 60 patients a day and treated a total of 3,383 during the third quarter, with 469 of these first time patients. We continue to make favorable experiences creating co-responsibility in our patient population through small and affordable charges to the patients that are able to afford payment. We also received a supply donation from Direct Relief International and medicine donated from the Women’s Committee of the Peruvian Association of Cardiology during this past quarter.

Demographics of patients treated
Gender:

Male: 1,126; Female: 2,186

Age:

29 days – 11 months: 281
1 – 4 years: 732
5 – 9 years: 422
10 – 14 years: 231
15-19 years: 239
20 – 59 years: 1,140
60 + years: 363
 

Patient Origin:

98.09% (3,249) from San Clemente
0.36% (12) from Pisco
0.06% (2) from Humay
0.12% (4) from Independencia
0.27% (9) from San Miguel
0.21% (7) from San Andrés
0.27% (9) Villa Casalla
0.60% (20) Otros

Nutritional evaluation of children of 0 – 9 years:

Undernourished children: 184
Overweight children: 89
Without undernourishment: 1,017

Evaluation of body mass index of patients from 10 to >69 years:

Low weight, slight obesity, severe and very severe obesity: 1,172
Malnourished: 705

Malnourishment Treatment Initiative

One of our Nurses, Leila, has been developing an initiative to treat malnourished children aged 6 months to 3 years old. The program started with 12 children of which 7 have been treated successfully and 3 are still undergoing treatment. Supervised by our physicians, Leila enrolls the patients in the Policlínico, and then visits them at home to review if they are following the instructions. This program is so far working very well with the mothers talking to each other about the benefits and how they can help their children to grow healthy.

Success Stories

Sixto Robles Contreras is 67 years old, from the city of Abancay, and works to support his family through construction work. Excessive contact with cement and other corrosive products have caused dermatitis on his hands for approximately the last 2 years. Sometimes the pain is so intense that he has to stop working for a few days in order to recover. This complicates his situation because it is difficult for him to find work in this area causing his family financial problems. He came to the clinic and is now in continuous treatment and is starting to see significant improvement.

Santosa Huanca is 37 years old, born in Apurimac, a town in the Peruvian Highlands, and is now living in San Clemente. Today she is the mother of 6 children, the youngest of which is 2 years old. She is responsible for caring for all the children and all the domestic chores. Her husband does not have steady work, and the family lives in very basic conditions with no water service so she has to walk several times a day to fetch buckets of water while also carrying the youngest child on her back. For this reason, she has suffered from back pain for more than 3 years and has had only irregular treatments due to lack of money. This affects her psychologically and she has been suffering from depression and anxiety. After attending the clinic and having medical treatment and psychological treatment she has been improving greatly and is continuing to progress every week.

DRI Donation

As mentioned in prior published reporting, we received a very generous donation of medicine and medical supplies and equipment from Direct Relief International. Our special thanks and recognition to Mr. Dan Smith, Jim, Ernesto and the whole team at DRI; this donation will allow us to provide better and more service to our patients with limited financial resources. The whole team at RMF Peru thanks DRI for financing this effort and helping us continue to provide effective treatment through our clinic in San Clemente. In addition to several months of basic medicine supply we also received the following:

Equipment Donated:
1 EKG/ 1 Transformer
1 Centrifuge/ 1 Transformer
3 Nebulizers/ 3 Transformers
1 Oxygen Concentrator / 1 Transformer
4 Exam tables
1 Microscope from Jim Eresto
 

MISSION PAMS Report 2010
 

The Peruvian-American Medical Society (PAMS) with the support of Real Medicine Peru, successfully held a 5 day medical mission in the city of Pisco and San Clemente between August 9th and 13th, holding 5 hour clinics each day. The clinics were held under the direction of Dr. Hugo Tapia and voluntary resident doctors in different specialties: Surgery, Dr. Rosales; Gynecology, Dr. Vega; Pediatrics, Dr. Vasquez; Ophthalmology, Dr. Pro; and Nephrology, Dr. Tapia. All these specialists volunteered their time and effort to attend to the 350 low income patients at outreach clinics held at RMF’s Policlínico Peruano Americano and the Hospital San Juan de Dios-General Hospital in Pisco.

Patients in need of clinical analyses for cholesterol, diabetes and urinary tract infections were able to be tested without charge, as well as receive medicine where necessary. We also had two Dentists attend, and while we did not have any dental equipment in our premises, we were still able to make extractions, treat with fluoridation and educate about dental hygiene. Cases observed for more complicated dental treatments and root canals were referred to the general hospital for treatment.

PAMS volunteers brought clothes, shoes and other items to be donated in the town of San Clemente; these were distributed to the families of the area. Mission PAMS also donated US$1,640 in funding support for the clinics. Approximately US$600 was used during the Mission PAMS on medicines and medical supplies and the remaining US$1,040 will support the clinic.

During the Mission we were able to perform surgery on one of Dr. Tapia’s patients, who was diagnosed with a Lipoma on the inside of her right arm (5 cm), which was causing her much pain and prevented full use of her arm. Unable to afford the operation before she arrived at the Mission, she was transferred to Dr. Rosales, the volunteer surgeon of the Mission and she underwent the surgery free of charge to remove the growth, and recovered satisfactorily. She is immensely grateful to the whole PAMS Mission team, her surgeon Dr. Rosales, and the RMF team at the clinic.

We also had the support of the Technological Institute Lord of Luren during this mission and of the International Red Cross, with eight nursing students helping to manage patient triage. At the end of the Mission’s outreach our team, friends and sponsors from Pisco offered a dinner to honor the members of the PAMS Mission and presented Dr. Tapia with a commemorative silver plate. Our most sincere gratitude to Dr. Tapia and Dr. Martina Fuchs for arranging and managing this MISSION PAMS 2010.