Nearly 3,000 Guatemalan patients were treated by the interns and podiatry residents from Pontiac Osteopathic Hospital in a recent trip under the auspices of DOCare International Health Mission.

Twenty-two of the 25 interns and two first-year residents traveled to Guatemala February 22 through March 9 under the leadership of Gary Willyerd, D.O., MSUCOM Class of 1978 and director of medical education (DME) at POH, a member of the Statewide Campus System.

Guatemala has the highest infant mortality rate in Central America and the average life expectancy is only in the 50s. Malnutrition was frequent and diagnosed commonly with gastrointestinal parasitic infections due to the poor water and sanitary conditions. Most patients were given vitamins and anthelmintics, which are drugs that destroy parasitic worms. Many patients benefited from osteopathic treatments, especially the women, who routinely carry heavy loads balanced on their heads. Allergic skin reactions from sun exposure at the high altitude and skin cancers were common. Several patients presented with textbook cases of disease processes never seen by the staff in the United States —for example, foot and mouth disease and leishmaniasis.

A three-month campaign by the class raised enough funds to cover the interns’ and residents’ expenses. The class was divided and each group spent one week participating in the mission.

"My clinical supervision and the camaraderie of this experience brought me personally very close to my intern class," Dr. Willyerd noted.

"During my 14 years as POH’s DME, I have never had an internship class bond like this one. Their teamwork and appreciation for ‘modern’ medicine was greatly heightened as a result of this experience,” he said.

Dr. Willyerd also said that POH is working to include this mission as a permanent part of their internship curriculum as well as offering it as a formal rotation for their residents.

"Discussions are being held by the AOA's Executive Director John Crosby to develop a continuity site in Guatemala, and I plan to make a presentation to AODME (Association of Osteopathic Medical Directors and Educators) for the involvement of other osteopathic training hospitals with DOCare," he said. "Dr. (Paul) LaCasse (medical director at Botsford Hospital) has already expressed his interest in having Botsford's participation with this mission."

Others attending included Tressa Gardener, D.O., associate DME; Sam Inwald, D.O., osteopathic principles and practice director; Annette LaCasse, D.O., Dermatology Residency Program trainer and former POH intern, and Paul LaCasse, D.O., medical director at Botsford Hospital and former POH intern. In addition, four former POH residents and attending physicians —Abdulrahman Qabazard, D.O. (ER), Constance Scott, D.O. (dermatology), Jody Rein, D.O. (ER), and Heidi Brandt, D.O. (internal medicine) —and four non-medical volunteers made the trip.