During a recent medical mission trip to Guatemala, a team of students, faculty and doctors, about 30 in total, from the College of Medicine and Life Sciences and The University of Toledo Medical Center were able to help more than 1,100 patients with limited or no access to medical care.
Dr. Svitlana Zhukivska, a UTMC family medicine doctor and College of Medicine and Life Sciences professor, said that UToledo contingent were able to provide medical help and treatments to patients with arthritis, UTIs and diabetes, including patients who had not been previously diagnosed as diabetic.
During a recent medical mission trip to Guatemala, second-year medical students, from left, Alyssa Davis, Priya Jindal and Rudha Lakkuru were among a team of UToledo and UTMC students, faculty and doctors to provide help to more than 1,100 patients with limited or no access to medical care.
Diarrhea also was a common diagnosis, particularly for children, Zhukivska said, because of water contamination in the region.
The team not only provided training to local health promoters who help provide basic medical care when patients can’t get to a clinic and donated supplies to area hospitals, but they were able to provide thousands of medications, joint injections, mental health counseling, women’s clinic examinations, water filters and more supplies.
Priya Jindal, a second-year UToledo medical student, had the additional responsibility of being the trip’s student leader whose responsibility included helping organize parts of the mission and translating for patients who spoke Spanish.
“Not only was this mission trip a way for me to strengthen my clinic skills, but it allowed me the opportunity to travel to a different part of the world where I was exposed to the culture and resources of the towns in Guatemala that we served,” Jindal said. “While speaking with and assisting team members in treating patients, I gained exposure to the health, hygiene and nutrition conditions in villages that are rather isolated and independent from surrounding communities.”
Zhukivska said the trip provided a “hands-on experience” for the medical students with treatments and diagnoses of diseases, including diseases rarely seen in the United States.
“The students have a desire to return to medical missions because of how rewarding it was for them,” Zhukivska said.
Reflecting on the medical trip and the help the team provided, Priya said there were moments that she will never forget.
“Our team was able to treat a young girl with Down syndrome who had never seen a doctor before. At first, she was very shy and hesitant, but by the end of her time with us at our clinic, she was smiling and even gave me a hug,” she said. “It was wonderful seeing her open up and be comfortable with us despite having never seen a doctor before.”
Priya and her sister Karina Jindal, a first-year dental student at Ohio State University, in San Lucas Toliman, Guatemala.
