Sisters doctor serves clinic in Honduras

Every seven years, Bend Memorial Clinic offers its doctors a six-month sabbatical. The time off is designed to prevent burnout, to let doctors get away from medicine for a while and recharge their energy.

Dr. May Fan, of Sisters, did just that. She and her family took an RV trip across the country to Maine and back, she indulged her passion for cycling, did some woodworking and took a Chinese language course.

"It was very rewarding to do non-medical things for a while," she said. But the call of service rang before her sabbatical was over and she headed south to answer it.

Dr. Fan spent a month on the island of Roatan on the Caribbean Sea side of Honduras, working at Clinica Esperanza.

The medical clinic was founded by an American nurse from Ohio, named Peggy Stranges.

According to Dr. Fan, the clinic is well-staffed with doctors and a dentist, and has a pharmacy that is better-stocked than the local hospital.

"They supplement with volunteers and students and medical residents," Dr. Fan said. "It seems the program is pretty well-known among the medical schools (in the U.S.)."

Dr. Fan was drawn to volunteering for the program for a number of reasons. The program was flexible in its scheduling and in the length of commitment, it was in a Spanish-speaking country, and Dr. Fan wanted to practice her Spanish.

While Roatan is a very beautiful Caribbean island and better off in many ways than mainland Honduras, it remains a very poor place, and Dr. Fan worked with the common medical problems associated with poverty.

"There was a lot of diabetes and hypertension," she said. Additionally, many people suffer from parasitic diseases endemic to the tropics.

While the clinic is well-staffed and supplied, it is difficult to deliver consistent care. Many patients don't make regular visits and keep up on their medications, resulting in out-of-control blood sugar or blood pressure.

"If they could afford the taxi ride to the clinic, they came," Dr. Fan. "If they couldn't, they didn't."

Clinica Esperanza accepts non-MD volunteers such as pharmacists and nurses. For more information visit http://www.clinicaesperanza.com.

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

• Email: [email protected]
• Phone: 5415499941