A Heart to Heart Experience

On September 20, 2017 Hurricane Maria made landfall on Puerto Rico causing unprecedented destruction and disorganization. I was only 7 years old when the last major hurricane made impact on the island and it was a terrifying experience. Never would I have imagined that 19 years later I would be facing one larger than that, a category 5 hurricane.

On September 27, a week after Hurricane Maria, my medical school, San Juan Bautista School of Medicine, emailed their students to learn our statuses, knowing that more than half of us did not have any form of communication after the hurricane. A student/faculty meeting was held with those of us who were able to arrive to the campus. During that meeting, two people coming from Haiti with a group called Heart to Heart International had just landed via helicopter at the Caguas Mennonite Hospital next to our school. They wanted to talk to us about their effort to save lives in Puerto Rico.

Heart to Heart International works in disaster or impoverished zones worldwide by improving health access, providing humanitarian development, and administering crisis relief. They came with the intent of opening a medical mission in rural areas of Puerto Rico and wanted to recruit students as volunteers to join the effort. They brought with them physicians, nurses, medications, insulin, tetanus vaccines, hygiene kits and food. I saw this was the perfect opportunity for me to help our people since aid was not arriving fast enough from the government and time was running out for those without communication in the mountains.

The next day, five other medical students and I joined the Heart to Heart team. None of us had electricity, potable water, internet, or stable cellular reception, but we left our families to help those who could not help themselves. During that day we treated patients in the emergency room of Caguas Mennonite Hospital and it served as our training for things to come in the next few days.

On September 29, when we returned to Mennonite Hospital, the scheduled transportation had failed to arrive. Knowing this would cause a delay, students offered up our own vehicles even with the unsafe roads on the mountains. Nothing would stop us from our mission. My group left in two compact cars for the town of Barranquitas located in the center of the island. We saw hundreds of people stationed in strategic spots, trying to communicate with their families to say that they were okay. On our arrival, we met with the mayor and his team. He stationed us in their community center making this our first health clinic on the mountain.

On September 30, we embarked on a mission to Jayuya, another town in the center of the island and one of the most difficult to reach. On the way we saw fallen bridges, landslides, desperate people, huge lines at all gas stations and ATMs, and long lines to get ice. The situation was critical. The mayor took our team to the town’s 8-bed hospital, where they received up to 80 patients per day in the ER. One very tired doctor and a couple of nurses were trying to take care of everything. The exhausted staff were extremely grateful for our help.

On October 1, my team stayed local in Caguas and my job was to support and translate for Dr. Patricia Fisher at a home for the elderly. The residents had almost no medications left, there was no cellular communications and they were not receiving medical services. The lack of electricity was becoming a problem and generators were failing or breaking because they were not designed to run for so long. The Heart to Heart team was able to serve more than 60 seniors in that home and provide medications to control blood pressure, diabetes, and other chronic conditions

On October 2, I needed to take a break. I still had no electricity, water or internet in my apartment; the cell phone signal was intermittent and I had not been able to communicate with my relatives. I devoted the day go to the other side of the island to my family and help with their struggles.

From October 3 to 6, I was assigned to work with Dr. Fisher again on a mission that would take us to Caguas, Barranquitas, Aguas Buenas and poor areas of San Juan. On the first day, the same day that FEMA arrived to that town, we were assigned to the Barranquitas Clinic. This caused a dramatic increase in the volume of patients and emerging problems. My job was to be in the triage area, simultaneously taking vitals and translating for the doctor, which was challenging. It was an intense day. We saw more than 60 patients that day, with all sorts of different conditions including people with panic attacks and extremely high blood sugar levels. The majority of patients were eating only military food which increased their sodium intake and raised their blood pressure. Due to lack of electricity, I also saw a lot of asthmatic patients without therapies.

The next day, we spent the entire day with the Aguas Buenas mayor, going door by door under the intense sun, checking patients, seeing if they had medications and their basic needs covered. In Puerto Rico, more than 60% of the population relies on the government medical insurance. Many of the cases that we found were people who could not pay for their medications because the few drugs stores that were open did not want to approve medical insurance without establishing communications with the health insurance companies. We found bedridden people and older people who couldn’t feed themselves; I can’t imagine what would have happened if we didn’t get there on time.

After all these experiences, I had go back to school and continue my surgery rotation and responsibilities as a medical student. Although school was closed for a few weeks due to roof damages, third year students went back to our rotations at the hospital sooner.

I will never forget the people I worked with and the impact they made on me and so many other Puerto Ricans in need. Seeing hope in people’s eyes, and their gratitude, that is something that will stay with me forever. Heart to Heart was the answered prayer of help for thousands of people in Puerto Rico. They do not know how grateful we are for their help. Being part of their team, and to help provide access to medical treatment, was one of the greatest privileges I have ever had.

I learned a lot in those days about resilience. I changed the way I live and look at life. Today, as I write this, thousands of people and communities still have no electricity and the whole system suffers recurrent blackouts, although communications and drinking water has improved considerably. My family has not had electricity for more than 4 months, but we still live grateful that we can count on each other one more day even in the hardest situations.

I want to thank:

Dr. Gary Morsh, Co-founder of Heart to heart int.
Jim Mitchum, CEO of Heart to Heart int.
Jordan Grover, Logistics of Heart to Heart int.
Dr. Patricia Fisher, Doctor Volunteer of Heart to Heart int.
Dr. Yolanda Miranda, Dean of Students of San Juan Bautista School of Medicine
Dr. Martha Garcia, she motivated me to write my experience and tell you.
And all the Heart To Heart Int. team nurses, paramedics, doctors.