Lessons from El Salvador

When Sara Doorley, a fourth-year medical student at Wright State, decided to reaffirm her reasons for becoming a physician, she did it in an unusual way. She took a leave of absence from medical school, gave up graduating with her classmates, left her home, and spent nine months in a small rural health clinic in the border town of Santa Marta, El Salvador.

After a five-week intensive course in medical Spanish, Sara moved to her assignment in Santa Marta, where she volunteered through the Doctors for Global Health organization. Santa Marta is a rural community that lacks running water, reliable public transportation system, dependable electricity, or a sanitation system. There are no job opportunities even when the average wage is only $4.50 per day. The government allows its people to farm the land near their home and to eat or trade for necessities what they grow.Sara lived on the local diet of red beans, tortillas, eggs, and avocados—every day, three meals a day. A local family generously provided her with her own room. She shared their life experiences, learning to bathe with only a bucket of freshly drawn water out of the outdoor cistern. "Day-to-day life was hard in that it was so different from the States, but through these challenges I developed a great appreciation and respect for this community that lacks access to basic resources," says Sara.  She was awakened early each morning by the sound of roosters and critters— scorpions, tarantulas, and bugs. “As with any service project, I got so much more out of it than I gave,” says Sara. "From this experience I learned a great deal about life, about who I am, and about medicine. I rediscovered the type of physician that I would like to become. I realized that this is something I can do anywhere in the world and make a difference. I learned valuable lessons that I have brought back with me and will be able to use while working in the bustling hospitals in the United States,” she continues. “Listening, really listening, is an important aspect in the art of practicing medicine. It was my experiences in El Salvador that solidified my commitment to medicine and will enable me to heal, educate, and serve those who are disproportionately burdened by injustice. I learned that suffering is universal, and that people are just people, no matter where they live.”

She shadowed and assisted physician Aristides Perez, M.D., a family practitioner for the Ministry of Health in El Salvador, usually seeing around 30 patients a day. She learned about tropical diseases and general family practice medicine. Sara assisted with well-baby checks and pre-natal counseling, handed out vitamins supplied by the Ministry of Health, and taught general health classes. Now Sara plans to include into her final months of medical school a research study on chagas disease—a tropical parasitic ailment transmitted through the bite of a bug. The disease can cause heart failure, especially in children, if left untreated and is very familiar to the people of the Santa Marta.

Sara is a resident of Fairborn, and a graduate of Fairborn High School. She holds a B.S. in science pre-professional studies with a fellowship in infectious disease from the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. She wants to continue her medical training with a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in tropical medicine.

--Nancy Harker

Sara Doorley ('05)
Sara is currently an internal medicine resident at Einstein/Montefiore Medical Center, in the Bronx, New York.