Paramedics for Children is Making a Difference in Honduras

Making a difference in Honduras In 1997, Rodger Harrison started Paramedics for Children, a nonprofit that provides medical care to people in northern Honduras and throughout Central America. Photo courtesy Rodger Harrison One afternoon in 1997, a gregarious American paramedic was practicing his Spanish language skills in a bar in Copán Ruinas, Honduras, when an urgent plea for help filtered through the door. "There's a kid hurt," recalled Rodger Harrison. "They thought I was a doctor. There was not a doctor in town who would treat the poor people, so I got involved." He asked about an ambulance, but there was no such thing. The patient was a little girl with a deep slice to her foot. "I had my first aid kit with me and I could bandage, but this girl needed stitches," he said. A willing "doctora" was finally found, but when she arrived, she had no supplies. She boiled some hair from a horse's tail and used it to stitch the girl's cut—without anesthetic. "It was a real-life experience," concluded Harrison, one that led him to a new path in life: making a difference in the lives of the people in northern Honduras. Fast forward 20-plus years: Harrison, now 66, lives in Copán Ruinas with his wife, Suyapa, and their three children. Their gracious hacienda also serves as a bed-and-breakfast, and the proceeds help fund the onsite medical clinic he founded in 2005. Called "Clinica la Esperanza," it provides medic...
Source: JEMS Patient Care - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Patient Care Administration and Leadership Source Type: news