Lessons in El Salvador II -- Reflections from Sara, May 2005--
Sara Doorley ('05)

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

"Wright State School of Medicine provides exposure to many educators and researchers who are also great clinicians and excellent mentors. It provides a friendly, non-threatening atmosphere for learning where questions are always welcome." -- Sara Doorley (Year IV)

May 11, 2005

Life has been absolutely wonderful... I completed my medical school requirements this past February and had the opportunity to return to Santa Marta, El Salvador for a second time with the organization Doctors for Global Health. So far it's been an amazing experience. Incredibly busy but amazing. The community of Santa Marta is a wonderful and warm community and one that has given me so much. In my life I have always been inspired by 2 overriding ocurrences, by the existence of injustice and by the existence of hope. In Santa Marta, I have found both. A tremendous injustice in the existence of this impoverished, marginalized, oppressed, war-torn community. A tremendous hope in the struggle to achieve a better tomorrow, an easier future, a more just society.

One of the first few days that I returned to Santa Marta I went to visit an old pacient, an elderly man who was sick last year with pneumonia. During my volunteer experience in 2004, a young girl approached me in the clinic, visibly upset, to inform me of her sick grandfather. Upon arrival at the house of the gentleman, I found an elderly man, septic, delirious, and struggling to breathe. At the time, I was really worried about him, unsure that he was going to survive the pneumonia. For a week and a half, I went to his house each day with the much needed penicilin and with a physical therapist who provided respiratory therapy. To my amazement, the elderly man recovered. Upon returning to Santa Marta this year, I returned to his house to find the man sitting in the hammock, alert, and talking. Incredible. I also had the pleasure to meet a little girl, his granddaughter, named Sara :-) A story I'll never forget.

I had returned to Santa Marta in hopes of working with the community on either a Chagas project or an asthma project. But as so often happens in life, plans changed. Upon returning to the community, I was confronted with both excellent and tough news. The first high school graduation in Santa Marta was last year with over 40 students graduating (incredible coming from a war torn community with a high percentage of illiteracy). Out of those 40, 18 decided to attend the University. There are currently 18 students who are living in the capital, 4 hours from their community, struggling to survive. A group of 8 students live together, crammed in a house without adequate beds, tables, or lights. The majority of them bring food from Santa Marta to the capital to subsist on for the week. Most aren't sure if they are going to be able to continue with their studies, feeling burdened by the incredible financial expense. As a result of the urgency of the situation, I opted to place prior plans on hold in order to work more fully with this project. I've always been a firm believer that the best approach to health has been a holistic one and that through education, opportunity, and empowerment, one can positively influence the health of the community.

In addition, there were 2 little girls in El Salvador (one in Morazan and the other in Santa Marta) in need of life saving operations. Liliana, a little girl from Santa Marta, was born with biliary atresia and needs a liver transplant. I have been accompanying her and her mom to the doctor's appointments and have spent some time with them in the hospital, trying to bring the mom food, diapers etc. As of a few days, I received excellent news from the Director of Pediatric Transplantations at the University of Pittsburgh that there is a high chance that Liliana will be able to receive the transplant through the University of Pittsburgh and a charity hospital in Italy. Sulma, the little girl from Morazan was born with Transposition of the Great Vessels. She also is in need of a lifesaving surgery, a caridac operation. The story of Sulma brings me to my most amazing experience at Wright State University. Although the vast majority of the expenses for Sulma's surgery are being covered through various charitable organizations, there is an uncovered cost of $7,000. As a result, Doctors for Global Health (DGH)immersed themselves in an emergent fundraising project (there was a very small window of opportunity that the surgery could be successfully completed). About 2 weeks before the deadline for the money, DGH was still about $2000 short. I sent out a brief email to the Wright State School of Medicine explaining Sulma's case. Within 2 weeks, WSU SOM alone had raised over $1000 through a valient fundraising effort. The money was successfully raised and her surgery is scheduled to take place within the next week. I have always been impressed with the quality and the integrity of the Wright State University School of Medicine student but in Sulma's case, my expectations were far exceeded. In the midst of an incredibly challenging academic schedule and rigourous work load, the Wright State University students united in order to save the life of an unknown little girl from a far away community. For me, this experience demonstrated the incredible sense of compassion, generosity, and service that WSU SOM embodies.

To my absolute elation, I matched into the Social Medicine residency program at Albert Einstein University-Montefiore in the Bronx, New York. The Social Medicine residency program is a three year program that is committed to providing health care for all through community based primary care and through advocacy for social change and for social justice. The residency program serves the population of the South Bronx and includes the Morrisania and Mott-Haven sections of the Bronx that are the poorest congressional districts in the nation. The program includes training in health and human rights and liberation medicine and provides the opportunity to work with political asylum seekers, needle exchange programs, and HIV AIDS outreach. The program looks absolutely amazing and I can't wait to continue on this incredible educational journey.

I am thrilled for graduation. I was 12 years old when I decided to become a doctor and have been working vigorously in the acheivement of this goal since that time. It is truly a dream come true.

My goal for the future is simple. I plan on utilizing my medical knowledge and medical skills to serve humanity, to help those in need, to fight for a more just society.

Sara :-