A 14-YEAR-OLD AMERICAN MAKING A DIFFERENCE

ON A MEDICAL MISSION TO GUATEMALA

At a time in the country of “no news is good news,” I want to share a story of my wife’s teenaged grandson, who recently accompanied two of his parents on a trip to Guatemala. About fifty people volunteered for the program offered by HELPS International, a non-profit organization which has been working on the ground there since 1984. What began as an eight-volunteer surgical group has evolved into more than 200 professional health care teams who have provided medical support over the years to over 275,000 Guatemalans unable to afford it.

Oden Guerin, not yet fifteen when he went, had a unique opportunity that most teens his age don’t have. He helped set up all the equipment - from microscopes to operating room tables - on an empty military base, where he spent his nights on a cot in the barracks. After surgeries, he helped feed patients who’d walked for miles to await their turn, lining up outside every day around six AM. He assisted an anesthesiologist with kids on the pediatric table for vital surgeries. He worked with the cataract team to wheel adult patients out to his father post-surgery for assessment. Altogether, professionals from the U.S. performed 328 total surgeries in five days - 80 in the main operating room and 248 cataract surgeries, not including eye exams and eye glasses given. .

Oden loves to write, and I asked if he’d be willing to set down some of his experiences. This is what he’d like to share:

“Going to Guatemala now in my life was just an extraordinary opportunity for someone my age and really life changing. It allowed me to see the struggle in impoverished countries and the fight to help them from organizations like HELPS who ran our medical mission.

For one, going and seeing their living conditions firsthand was a realization for me because many of these people are living in makeshift homes that they built themselves. Forget the comfort we have here in the U.S.! The “better” makeshift homes are of insulated clay walls with steel roofs provided by organizations. But many people just have wood walls and thatch roof (which they are cooking open fire under). These people really just make do, they use what they can to add on and make more space for their large families and often end up having lots of things and not much space.

But the amount of change, good change, that we brought them was amazing. We heard one story of a young girl and her mother, who each day took a long trek probably 10 to 20 miles out and back to get clean water and firewood - repeatedly experiencing injustice and harm on their way. Other stories were remarkably similar. But the happiness in them when they found that these trips would be once a month, if not never again!

Just by putting in a real stove (replacing wood-fire open cooking) and water filter, the horrible experiences passed down from mother to daughter will end. And overall, a number of diseases are removed from the equation - lung cancer, asthma, heart disease, and cataracts. That’s just one amazing thing brought about by one team in this mission.

Then there’s the medical team, performing each day what seem like miracles, taking out cataracts by the hundreds, just pushing them out each day to do as many as they can, trying not to turn anyone away. And the surgeons, fixing completely life altering facial tumors and eye and cheek drooping, some getting a fake eye to hide what was the ruin of their old one. These things were amazing to watch and put out to this community.

And I’m sure that I formed a new community with the medical staff, because they weren’t just out there saving lives, they were doing it and having fun, and being outgoing, and showing their care for the average patient. Even one of the anesthesiologists themselves went out of their way to let me do part of their job, putting in something that could help someone breathe all the while they are asleep so they don’t feel pain. To protect someone like that I felt a belonging.

I felt welcomed in other places too. In each medical team, a place for me was made, a job found - be that through helping in the operating room or wheeling patients to where they can recover. I can’t wait to see how all this changes me in the future and I can already feel it now. My views are changed, and I want to keep the memory fresh in my mind because this was a valuable experience and I hope it makes me an overall better person.”

After the trip, Oden’s teachers received this email from one of the doctors present:

“I’m excited to write this letter to tell you about the lovely experience I had working with your student, Oden Guerin.
Oden participated in the Helps International medical mission from May 10-May 21. This is an organisation that sends multiple groups to work in rural Guatemala providing medical/surgical care and teams that put rudimentary stoves into people’s homes who are only able to cook over open fires.
Oden worked in all areas of our team and was an enthusiastic and hard working team member.
I am a physician of nearly 40 years and am trained in both internal medicine and anesthesiology. I’ve provided care on over 25 medical missions in Romania, Palestine, and Guatemala.
I was fortunate to have Oden work with me many times during the week. He provided intelligent answers to medical questions and was able to reason out his responses on subjects I wouldn’t have expected him to know or understand yet! He followed my directions and was able to assist with hands-on care of pediatric eye surgery patients with great skill. I was very impressed with his eagerness to learn and participate.
Oden also spent time with the cataract team and the stove team, and did equally well in those areas. I’m sure that he did many more things than I was able to observe as I’m obligated to remain with my patients at all times.
Lastly, I’d like you to know that based on his queries about aspects of medicine, I gave Oden 3 homework assignments and asked him to report his research to me. His work was excellent and he never shirked from an assignment! They were not easy topics and when he wasn’t sure about an answer, he did additional research to clarify things.
It was a pleasure to work with this young man and I thank you for your hard work as an educator! It clearly pays off!”
- Anesthesiolost, MD.