New Patient Assistance Fund

Last week a new fund was created for clinic patients with special medical needs. In the past we have collected money for special cases through donations from our staff and friends here in Peru, but most of the time this is not sufficient to meet the needs that we have.

A recent example of a patient who needs assistance from a fund such as this is Milagritos, a sweet quiet 14 year old girl from a small pueblo outside of Contumaza in the sierra of Northern Peru. She came to Trujillo seeking a diagnosis for a rapidly growing mass in her lower abdomen. After a series of tests the doctors in Hospital Belen gave her a diagnosis-an ovarian tumor. Milagritos has relatives that live close to the clinic and they brought her into the obstetrician to explain the implications of her diagnosis.


Monday of last week she had an operation to remove a 30 cm ovarian tumor that weighed 3.5 kilos. We are still awaiting the pending pathology of the tumor and a biopsy of her colon (a twenty one day turnover!). She is being treated at the only cancer center in Northern Peru, which happens to be in Trujillo. This hospital does not accept government health insurance, which means the family will need to cover all treatment costs. Because there is no such thing as St. Jude's here in Peru the family is doing everything they can to pay for the costs of the treatment. Her father is a farmer and has sold everything he can to come up with money for her operation. With the help of family and friends back home in the sierra, they have paid in full for the operation and other hospital expenses. However this is not the end of her story; she will likely need 6-8 rounds of chemotherapy, which cost about 500 soles per round, as well as other tests and hospital time (40 soles a day for hospitalization). It is quite incredible how little health care costs here, but they are still costs!

Another patient who recently had 2 operations in Hospital Regional in Trujillo is Sr. Jose Plascencia Cruz. Sr. Jose is 82 years old and travels across Trujillo every day to sell his 10 centimo (cent) candies in Hermelinda-the largest and most dangerous market in the city. Without any family to help him, he tells us he has to stay healthy to keep up his little business, always reminding us that 'he has his clients!'. He has been having prostate issues for the past 3 years, as well as a growing inguinal hernia for the past 4 months. Recently the discomfort became so debilitating that he was unable to work or walk to the clinic. He resolved to give up and live with the pain, and he just wanted us to help him by giving injections for his pain. But with the help of many donations from our Peruvian friends and interns, we were able to raise the money to pay for both of his surgeries. We also took him to get his public health insurance (SIS) renewed at the local posta (government-run clinic). Although going through the public hospital system was a long and tedious process, it helped us make the operations a reality. Sr. Jose got out of the hospital this past Monday. The total cost of his prostate surgery, hospital stay and medications: S/224.50 ($79.19 USD). And everything else was covered under the public insurance. Now this doesn't include the time that the clinic interns spent waiting in lines, going to doctors visits, and meeting with social workers for several weeks. However it is a wonderful, eye opening experience for interns to learn the Peruvian public health care system, as well as minister to and serve these individual patients.
Consider a tax deductible gift to this charitable fund, it is a life changing ministry for the folks that receive help. Thank you!

Christian Missionary Society
P.O. Box 53363 Knoxville, TN 37950-3363
Phone: (865) 684-4580
(Wichanzao Clinic Patient Assistance Fund written on the memo line)

New Fellow comes to CMP

We are so excited to welcome Kelly Chang to Trujillo! Kelly is a Doctor of Pharmacy student at the University of Southern California and will be graduating in May. She has come down for a month to give a few lectures, help train clinic staff on new medicines, drug interactions, and also help give us a few ideas on how we can continue to improve and expand this area of the Wichanzao Clinic. Thank you Kelly for your work here among us!

Morning devotionals continue at CMP

The staff at the Clinic continues to rotate in our daily morning devotionals with all the patients and clinic workers. In January our Pastor, Percy Padilla, officially began his work with a church plant in his neighborhood as well as the Presbyterian Church in Arevalo. We miss him very much! As the search begins for a new Pastor for the clinic we will continue with our daily bread at 8am each day. After opening our doors the patients come in and we begin our day by reading and meditating upon scripture followed by a short time of prayer.

During Semana Santa, patients listen to Sonia Guerra Gonzales, our obstetrician, read a passage about the Resurrection of Christ.

We would like to congratulate and welcome the newest member of our team in Wichanzao, Dr. Julton Tomanguillo! Dr. Tomanguillo is a recent medical graduate of the Escuela de Medicina at the Universidad César Vallejo in Trujillo. He will work as a full time physician in the clinic in the area of general medicine. This is a position we have been looking to fill for some time, and are grateful the the Lord has provided a strong and committed Christian leader to work with us. Dr. Tomanguillo grew up in Moyobamba, Peru and is a talented musician who plays guitar, churrango, quena, the zampoña as well as others. He is currently using his gifts in music to play at services in the new church plant in downtown Trujillo. He will also be getting married later this month to Miss Julie Rogers, a former Peru Mission intern. Congratulations Julton and Julie! We would like to give a warm welcome to Julton and are very excited about the services, ministry and witness he will provide to patients in the community of Wichanzao.

Pucallpa February 2010

CMP recently had the opportunity to contribute to a mobile dental campaign of the LSU Dental school in a Shipibo village outside of Pucallpa, Peru. The village "Alfonso Ugarte" has a population of over 1,000 Shipibo Indians and is located 8 hours upriver from Pucallpa, a major city in the jungle of Peru and the only one that links the Amazon River and the Pacific Ocean. Shipibo is the native tongue and lanuage of daily life in the area although many of the men speak Spanish, and the children are learning Spanish in school. During the week the Peruvian missionaries who accompanied the team held a vacation bible school and played games with the children. Also they were able to obtain a movie about the life of Jesus...in Shipibo! All of the villagers were very excited because it is the only movie that they had ever seen in their own language. The Clinic was able to provide a translator for the dental team as well as supply toothbrushes, vitamins, anti-parasitics and other medicines that are difficult to obtain in this isolated area. This was the first dental campaign in the village and many people traveled from areas deeper in the jungle to receive the free dental services performed, which included extractions, fillings, cleanings as well as oral hygiene education.

Terri Attardo returns to E.E.U.U.

One of our fellows, Terri Attardo, RN recently returned home to Connecticut after serving for 5 months in the clinic. Terri not only brought down suitcases full of supplies but also taught us how to use them! Sometimes Peruvian physicians and nurses are not familiar with medications, wound care dressings, et cetera that are new in the United States and not common here. Terri was able to help our staff members to use them correctly. She also faithfully nursed one of our elderly diabetic patients, Senor Leon, and we know he will miss her. Starting Monday, Terri will begin her new position in the OR at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut. Congratulations Terri, we hope you return to us soon!

IPC Memphis Medical and Dental Team (January 30th-February 5th)

Thank you IPC Memphis Team!
We had a great week of medical and dental work with a team from Independent Presbyterian Church from Memphis, Tennessee. This team had several physicians, dentists, nurses, a nutritionist and a nurse practitioner student and others who were able to provide a variety of services to patients in need in and around the city. Monday we held the campaign in the neighborhood of Manuel Arevalo, Tuesday we worked in a small sugarcane farming community north of Trujillo called Mocollope. On Wednesday the campaign was held in Parque Industrial. Thursday we went out to Clementina, a small community on the outskirts of Wichanzao. Friday’s campaign was out in Hogar de Esperanza an orphanage that the mission has been working with.

The team was able to provide medical and dental services to hundreds of folks in one week! These communities are in serious need of the physical healing and medicine that short term teams bring, and these campaigns always open doors for long term relationships with both Peruvian and American pastors and missionaries. We always enjoy working with this team and look forward to seeing them again next year!




If you would like to read more about what the team did each day you can find their blog here.