Dr. Emily Baird works for Bend Anesthesiology Group, but she spends many of her days in St. Charles’ Family Birthing Center, working closely with nurses and doctors to deliver healthy babies.
That’s where she found a group of people to join her on a medical mission trip to the western highlands of Guatemala.
“I had told some of the labor and delivery nurses that I was going on this trip, and I was shocked at the interest,” Baird said. “Since I got back, even more people have said that next time, they want to go.”
In fact, there’s a long history of St. Charles caregivers traveling to Nuevo Progreso, a rural area in the southwest corner of Guatemala where crime rates are high and health care services are scarce. They go to work alongside resident health care workers at Hospital De La Familia, where they provide general medical care and specialized treatment and surgeries for locals, regardless of their ability to pay. (The foundation that organizes the trips also sends teams to provide vision care, maternal health services and care for malnourished children.)
Baird and three registered nurses — Nikki Truhlar, Dana Carmichael and Clarena Rule — from the Bend Family Birthing Center went to Nuevo Progreso in February. Over the course of five days, they provided much-needed treatment to more than 100 people, many of whom traveled long distances to receive care.
“Some come by bus. Some of them walk there. But they come because we are offering free medical care. They don’t have to pay anything,” Baird said. “The amazing thing about these patients is just how incredibly resilient and grateful they are. It’s remarkable to take care of them.”
The medical mission performed multiple medical services, including hysterectomies, hernia repairs, gallbladder removals and resection of uterine polyps. In addition, the group hosted a pregnancy clinic, offering screening ultrasounds and prenatal care in a region where physician-supervised prenatal care is uncommon.
One of goals was to build trust and enhance medical knowledge within the community of Nuevo Progreso.
“The hope was that there could be some education, and that this is something they will continue to do after we’re gone,” Baird said. “It was also a step toward trying to build some trust between the medical community and the patient population.”
When performing surgery, the team worked in a spartan room with three operating tables situated side by side, about 8 feet apart. They supplemented the hospital’s supplies with donated equipment and medications — including a couple thousand dollars worth from St. Charles, Baird said, which helped ensure a safe anesthetic experience for patients.
“Those are medications that I can’t get in Guatemala, but I really wanted to take them down there with me,” she said. “I think the most impressive thing was just how willing everyone I talked to at St. Charles was to help. I didn’t have to plead my case that hard, and just seeing how excited they were to help however they could made me feel really proud.”
For Truhlar, February’s trip was her second time working at Hospital De La Familia. This time, she managed post-anesthesia care for patients and coordinated logistical aspects of surgeries — two very different roles than what she has done for St. Charles for the past 15 years.
“We all kind of rotated around a little bit, which is part of the experience,” she said. “It’s not about going down and finding your niche and focusing on that, but to have the opportunity to experience a lot of other types of nursing, and to be part of a team that can come in and provide quality care for the people there.”
In particular, Truhlar enjoyed working alongside the hospital’s caregivers and augmenting the care they provide for the people of the region.
“I got to see how they do their daily functions and how they manage patient care, and that really allowed me to have an understanding of the hard work they do,” she said. “It’s not just caring for the patients, but also recognizing the people who work there and how much work goes into caring for their own community.”
The trip was a perfect fit for Carmichael, who makes a habit of volunteering in fields that are important to her. Locally, she works with Street Dog Hero, and in Nuevo Progreso, she helped prepare patients for surgery.
“I like traveling. I like medicine. I like being of service. It’s a beautiful country and beautiful people,” she said. “It was just a cool experience in so many different ways, and something like this can kind of reset your priorities, you know? You come away saying, ‘OK, this is why I’m here. This is why I chose this profession.’”
In the evenings, the group engaged in community activities, playing soccer and volleyball with locals and participating in exercise classes. They lived in dorm-style rooms and at the end of the trip, hiked a volcano together. And when they arrived home in Central Oregon, they shared a stronger bond and new perspectives on both the world at large and the work they do every day.
“Trips like this reinforce for me just how happy the people are and how vibrant their lives can be with so little,” Baird said. “I also think it reinforces that it’s such a gift to be able to practice medicine and to be able to help people. And it was very fun to do it with people that I continue to work with now that we’re home.”
Pictured in the left-most image below, clockwise from upper left, are Dana Carmichael, Emily Baird, Nikki Truhlar and Clarena Rule. All photos were taken by Nikki Truhlar.
