After 27 hours of travel I have arrived. It is very hot, there is no air conditioning and only warm bottled water to drink.
On January 14th I had the amazing opportunity to travel to the jungles of southern India on a volunteer medical missions trip. I went as the nurse to help two doctors from our hospital here in Pennsylvania.
We set up "medical camps" in tiny churches in the state of Kerala, India. During the 12 days we were there we saw hundreds of people. These people stood in the heat for hours waiting to be seen and never complained. After their exam it was my job to be the "pharmacist" and give out the medications that were ordered. We saw a lot of people who suffered from severe back pain from the hard manual labor they must do. By the time they got to my pharmacy they were thrilled to get a few magic pink pills (Ibuprofen).
One of the ladies we saw, Mary, stands out in my mind. Mary is a middle-aged lady with severe asthma. She has had great difficulty breathing for several years. To make her condition worse, Mary works in a school kitchen. In India they cook over an open fire inside the building so she was always in a smokey room. Mary had an inhaler but was unable to properly use it because she couldn't take a deep enough breath. We were able to make her a temporary spacer out of a plastic cup. With the spacer and a few steroids, Mary was able to breath for the first time in many years. I can still see the tears streaming down her face as she kissed my hands over and over for helping her.
While we were there we got to hold a clinic in the mission's home for abandoned children. These kids sat quietly on thin mats on the concrete floor for about two hours, taking turns being seen. They didn't hit the kid next to them and they didn't complain because it was past their dinner time. They didn't even carry on when the electric went off and we were in total darkness until they could get the temporary lighting on.
We also did house calls for some of the people that were unable to get out to the clinics. Many of these homes were small shacks without running water and all the conveniences we have in our country. We saw frail elderly people that were very well cared for by their families even in those poor conditions. I have seen people in much worse condition come from skilled nursing facilities in the United States.
In India you do not need a prescription to get medicine and it is very in-expensive compared to American standards. You can buy an inhaler for $7 but when you only make $7 a week you usually don't spend it on medicine.
I think that the thing that sticks out most in my mind about my experience with nursing in a different culture is the gratefulness of the people we saw. In America there is such a sense of entitlement. We "owe" them medical care and they want it all right now! I wish that people who sit in the air conditioned ED waiting room, complaining of a terrible sore throat they have had for the last 2 weeks, while we care for an acute MI ahead of them could see these people standing for hours in 95 degree heat.
Even though it was almost unbearably hot and I was totally exhausted I would not exchange the time I spent with the people of India. Since I have been home I have received messages that the people are saying things like "they came all the way from America just to see me." You never really know what you have until you visit a third world country and see how other people live.
