Doctors Across Borders
Tuesday, November 28 2006
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Doctors Across Borders
Bernadette and Jack Page
In July, Dick interviewed Dr. Jack Page. Jack and his wife, Bernadette -- also a doctor -- have been keeping an audio diary of their experiences at a volunteer hospital in rural Guatemala. For some, their volunteer work may seem like an ordeal. But for them, it's a dream they've waited a long time to pursue. While they were in medical school years ago, they talked about volunteering their medical skills in a developing country.
Then life took over: kids, careers, mortgage. But when their retirement years started to appear on the horizon, they decided to rekindle their dream. So they liquidated their assets. And they found themselves in the small lakeside town of Santiago Atitlán. It's a part of Guatemala that has some of the highest infant and child mortality rates in Latin America. Jack and Bernadette have been keeping an audio diary for The Story about their time in the emergency war of the small volunteer hospital.
A three year-old arrived seizing with a fever of 104. She looked like she was hallucinating. The herbal remedy - the leaves covering her body - were tobacco leaves. She did get two doses of antibiotics, before we felt absolutely certain that her recovery would have been way too miraculous for meningitis, but was very compatible with a kid with diarrhea and fever, treated with lots of nicotine.
- Visit the volunteer hospital in Santiago Atitlan
Tough Jobs - Hospice Nurse
Donna Elam
There are all kinds of tough jobs, but there's one category that no one really want to think about: the people who must care for us at the end of our lives. Donna Elam is one such person. She's a hospice nurse in Wake County, North Carolina. Being a hospice worker seems like it would be one of the hardest - and most depressing - jobs in the world. But when Dick talks with Donna Elam, he finds out that her job can also be one of the most rewarding and inspiring things anyone can do.
- Learn more about the hospice organization Donna works with
- Visit national hospice organizations here and here
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