Nicaragua Day 2

Monday, 22 June: We arrived at a women's and children's clinic served by the La Virgin de la Merced bright and early. Part of La Merced focuses on social welfare needs, so they headed off to the school run by the Parish nuns.




The rest of us headed into the clinic for a day of minor surgeries. (The clinic does not have a sterile operating area, so only procedures requiring local anesthetic can be performed). It was a day of moles and keloids, but for me proved a good introduction to shooting surgery. I wasn't sure how well I would handle an abundance of needles and blood. I mean, I never had problems in the past, but exposure has always been limited to personal trauma and vaccines.



Even though the clinic is run by the church, it is managed by the government. This in itself creates some interesting political issues. Dr. Perrotta and the medical staff of La Merced were expecting, well, women and children. By lunchtime, we had seen maybe 2 young men, 3 or 4 older men, and no women or children. Our coordinator, Nancy, curious why the patients being admitted for treatment weren't on our list, and discovered that our morning cases were all connected to government employees. She began reviewing the upcoming cases herself, so the afternoon proved more in keeping with the clinic's mission.