Real World Amazon

We knew coming down here that being flexible would be important, but we had no idea that we would be contortionists by a week and a half in. Starting with a cancelled flight and a broken backpack, we finally all met up in Lima June 12th. Since then, we have become the world´s greatest problem solvers. Starting with blown i-pod speakers from 220 voltage, dealing with lost laundry, a booked up flight to Iquitos due to an unknown festival week, and finding out about a first round of issues with our proposed project, Lima was an interesting introduction to our summer.

Once we finally got to Iquitos, the real problems began. We had planned on meeting with the Ministry of Health in the area but were deterred by an angry group of striking healthcare workers and were unable to cross picket lines. Somehow we have been put in contact with a miracle worker (a peruvian doctor that lives in Denver and will be accompanying us throughout the summer) and he was able to arrange a sit-down meeting with the surgeon general of Loreto (the state we are in) later that night. We were able to get a letter of support from the Ministry of Health of Peru that CU was demanding in order for our project to continue. The surgeon general also put us in touch with a doctor that knows the area exceptionally well and we got a lot of insight from her. At that point, everything seemed great and we were ready to roll.

We woke up the next morning ready to go on the medical missions with Centura Health and what did we find? Annie shaking uncontrollably in bed after passing out several times during the night and Cindi in slightly better shape but not well by any means. Both spent the day in the hospital receiving fluids for dehydration and labwork to see what was going on. Somehow they both contracted dysentery, but of different origins. Annie had bacterial dysentery and Cindi had amoebic dysentery but, after five days of recovery, both are fully recovered and now immune to those forms of dysentery, which is nice.

Now for the high points. Todd spent the last week working with the Centura team here in Iquitos. For two days he scrubbed into surgery with an American surgeon and observed reductions of the worlds largest scrotal hernias and gallbladder removals. He spent the other three days going out to the villages assisting with medical care of the people. Meanwhile, Chris set off with Dr. Bascunan (the overtly passionate and amazingly caring peruvian doctor who will be accompanying us) for the upper reaches of the Napo river (that feeds into the Amazon). While there, he worked with Centura`s missions, assisting with triage of patients and helping Dr. Bascunan remove cysts, abscesses, and the occasional bullet.

We have learned a very valuable lesson however. After every peak there is a valley, and sometimes they are deep. We learned on Saturday that bureaucracy cannot be excaped, even in a country that it does not apply. In order for our project to proceed as planned, our institutional review board is unexpectedly requiring documents that do not exist within Peruvian culture (HIPAA certification of all subjects, data use agreements, and removal of the GPS component of the project for fear of identifying our subjects) and this has caused our role in the project to change dramatically. This has been extremely discouraging and frustrating for the three of us, but the summer is not lost. Fortunately, the University of Denver graduate students that we came with will be able to continue the project. Our role has now changed from principal investigators in the study, to one in which we will support project logistics. Our role has also expanded in several different ways. We have been given the opportunity to help rebuild the only hospital located along the river, we will be spending a week with another NGO that sends medical missions to the area, we will be creating a GPS map of the area not linked with any surveys that will help estimate travel times and distances to the nearest healthcare, and we will be assisting Dr. Bascunan in giving direct care to the people along the river.

We will be moving our basecamp out to the jungle tomorrow and will be leaving behind the beautiful, welcoming city of Iquitos. If the chaotic whirlwind of the last two weeks is any indication of what the rest of this summer holds for us, we are in for an amazing, rewarding adventure.