The hospital has a well respected neonatal intensive care unit as well at both inpatient and outpatient services for women and children. One case in particular stuck with me. A woman came in after a failed home delivery. She had delivered her first 6 children at home but subsequently lost 2 of them to respiratory illness within the first 2 months of life. She had been laboring since the day before and kept saying, ‘I can’t, I can’t’. She knew something was wrong and that this did not feel like her other deliveries.

I was privileged to work in many different settings during my time in Ecuador giving me a wide range of exposures. First of all, there is private versus public medical care. The perception among those that seek care in the private hospitals is that they are receiving a superior service in exchange for paying for services that are free elsewhere. In some ways this is true. However, in the public hospitals international standards of care were followed.

Whenever I’ve heard people reflect about their international medical experiences (especially among my colleagues who have worked here in Guyana), there tends to be a few common themes that emerge. There are statements about the gratitude of the local population, and their resilience in the face of adversity in nearly every aspect of their lives. They discuss the lack of resources available; how the hospitals/clinics can lack the most basic of amenities (gloves, bandages, water), or how few and far between medical practitioners are located. Universally, people say the experiences have changed them at their core; they now have a greater appreciation for the resources/opportunities available back in the US, and will continue to work to improve the plight of those less fortunate.

Whenever I’ve heard people reflect about their international medical experiences (especially amongst my colleagues who have worked here in Guyana), there tends to be a few common themes that emerge. There are statements about the gratitude of the local population, and their resilience in the face of adversity in nearly every aspect of their lives. They discuss the lack of resources available; how the hospitals/clinics can lack the most basic of amenities (gloves, bandages, water…), or how few and far between medical practitioners are located. Universally, people say the experiences have changed them at their core; they now have a greater appreciation for the resources/opportunities available back in the US, and will continue to work to improve the plight of those less fortunate.