Early week 2 update

What a great weekend.  Waterfalls, hiking, swimming in rivers.....it was some good R&R before starting a very busy week 2.

Velo de Novia, one of the waterfalls we visited

But now....back to work.  Yesterday was a longer day, working at the hospital in the morning before spending the afternoon and evening at the Chanchamayo prison for a health campaign.  We identified some sicker people there then at the health campaigns last week. Some examples included: out-of-control diabetes and hypertension, bloody cough and fevers concerning for tuberculosis, an unidentified neck mass concerning for a thyroid nodule, and a woman with stage III uterine cancer who recently developed rectal bleeding.  Interestingly, the accounts given by the prisoners sometimes did not match up with those of the prison's medical staff, who tended to downplay the concerns of the prisoners.  I'll leave that open to interpretation.  

This morning more work in the hospital, this time in cardiology. Tonight, we're going to the fire-station where I'll be leading some CPR teaching.  The firefighters are, from what I have been able to gather, the only medically equipped first-responders here in La Merced.  Unfortunately, they're all volunteers and many don't know how to use their equipment or perform basic life support procedures like CPR.  

There's some interesting and controversial ethics behind teaching CPR in developing countries, as highlighted in this paper by Friesen, Patterson, and Munjal from the past year.  I have some misgivings about designing CPR lessons for lay-people in rural native communities, which I had been asked to do originally by the FIMRC-Peru administration.  Without getting into it too much here, though, I see less of an ethical dilemma in teaching CPR to designated first-responders who are going to be taking ambulances to medical emergencies with or without me.  So I'm excited for tonight.

Hasta luego,

Nick