The weeks, for the most part, pass uneventfully at Km 8. Sure there’s the occasional surgery or patient that really needs help, but most of the time it’s the same old same old. The patients come in to the clinic everyday, they get signed up in triage, the doctor sees them, they get their medicines or their shot, and they’re on their way. But sometimes a lot of big things seem to happen in one week. That was this week. On Monday an older woman came in with her blood pressure off of the charts. 240/130. She was immediately given medicines in an IV and ended up staying in the clinic to be monitored all day. Thank God her blood pressure eventually dropped and she was able to go home.

We thought the day was over. The doctor had already finished seeing all of the patients when all of a sudden a woman comes up to the pharmacy telling us that there is an emergency. A husband and wife had brought in their little 2-year-old princess. At first glance, there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with her. But if you got close, you could hear her shallow, struggled breathing. Her mother explained to Doctor Cecilia that she had an abscess in her throat and it was blocking her airway. The abscess was a lot bigger than expected, and therefore very dangerous. White puss was visible and the growth was bleeding. The Doctor gave the little girl, Celestia, an injection of an antibiotic to hopefully kill the infection, giving us more time, but an operation was necessary. The family continued their story. They had no money. They had found a specialist in Pucallpa who had reduced the cost of the surgery for them, but they still couldn’t pay. If Celestia didn’t have this surgery, though, she would most likely die from the growth bursting open the puss and fluid entering her lungs. Saying a quick prayer, Dr. Cecilia asked the mom how much the surgery was going to cost and then came to talk to us. “Girls,” she began, “There is a little girl here who is going to die if she doesn’t have this surgery. This family needs our help.” There was no question in our minds as to what we were going to do next. Later that afternoon we went into Pucallpa to take money out of the bank and between the four of us; we came up with the money. Stephanie, Rachel, and I were talking about it later.

“Man, I can’t even believe that giving like 40 bucks each is going to save this little girls life,” I told them.

“I know,” Rachel started. “It’s so sad that her family doesn’t have enough money to do anything, but I’m so glad that we’re able to help them out.”

The next day when the little girl came in, the Doctor noticed that the puss had gone down and it was no longer bleeding. The surgery was finally scheduled for Friday morning at 6 a.m. Jonathan left early in the morning to go pick up the family at their house to bring them to the specialist’s office.

Pre-med majors Jonathan, Lauren, and Jenessa were excited about watching the surgery. They got all scrubbed up and went into the operation room. What they found, however, wasn’t good news. After the surgeon started removing the growth, he saw that directly behind it were about three more good-sized lumps. Cancer. “Things like this just aren’t fair,” said Jenessa. “She’s so young. And her family doesn’t have the money to pay for radiation treatments.” I guess the good news of the situation Celestia’s airway is no longer being obstructed by the growth thanks to the surgery that was preformed on Friday.