Giving Back

In February 2010, Dr. Cassandra Claman and her nurse, Cheryl Furbeck, traveled with a medical mission team to Casa Angelina orphanage in Guatemala. The mission was organized through ER Abroad, a non-profit medical mission group, that has worked in Guatemala for the last three years. The trip included a group of Springfield medical professionals including medical technicians, nurses, EMT's, and Dr. Claman. Another group, including a nurse and second physician from St. Louis and a physician assistant and nurse from South Dakota, joined the Springfield group the second day in Guatemala.

Everyday began with an alfresco breakfast with typical Guatemalan cuisine at the hotel. Shortly after breakfast, an old school bus picked up the medical team and other volunteers and take them to the orphanage. Casa Angelina orphanage was about an hour away from the hostel and situated high on a hill surrounded by acres of coffee plants and perfectly maintained plots of vegetables with mountains and volcanos in the distance. From the orphanage, the medical team and interpreters loaded a van and drove to nearby villages to provide care.

Frequently, the team was welcomed by the town's mayor and pastor along with a long line of villagers waiting to be seen that day. The clinics were set up variously in churches and schools with three rooms used for the examinations (in one church, an exam room was a stable), a make-shift pharmacy with donated medications, and a triage area. By the end of the week, over 450 patients were cared for by the team.

While the medical team took care of patients, a group of 25 volunteers from South Dakota were at the orphanage helping with the construction of a school and additional housing for the children. It was an extremely rewarding trip for all involved. ER Abroad plans to return to Guatemala again in February of 2011.