Ecuador

Acute respiratory infections are responsible for 37% of deaths in infants from one week to eleven months of age. Thirty-two percent of children from 1 to 4 years of age die of respiratory infections. Children suffering from respiratory infections account for a quarter or more of hospital discharges.

Prior to the start of each mission, approximately 4 tons of cargo is sent ahead, including medical supplies, equipment and surgical sets - every thing needed to make the clinic fully operational. Donations of equipment and supplies are solicited for each mission. They come from local hospitals, such as Desert Regional Hospital in Palm Springs, California, and corporations such as Kimberly Clark, Inc., which donated two pallets of sterile surgical buffonts and footwear, and Massimo, Inc., which donated two cases of new Pulse Oximeters as well as other medical equipment.

During each ten-day mission, the doctors and staff work 12 hour days, serving patients that are lined up outside the clinic as far as the eye can see. Patients are seen for all levels of medical care, from general medical concerns to trauma, plastic, orthopedic and heart surgery, as well as all levels of pediatric care. In the clinic that was run from May 18 - 28, 2006, 1,835 people were seen by general Internists, 447 children were seen by a Pediatric Pulmonary specialist, 72 people had plastic surgery consultations, 47 people had plastic surgery, 293 people had orthopedic consultation, 17 had orthopedic surgery, 310 were seen and provided with services by an optometrist, and 523 people received dental services. The pharmacy provided prescriptions for 3,882 patients. All totaled, 7,719 received some level of services. Over, $123,000 in equipment and medicines were left behind with local physicians to further serve the needs of the local population. Further, during their stay in Ecuador, the IMA physician/volunteers provide medical education for Ecuadorian physicians and medical students.

The Ecuadorian government will not allow any medicine that has passed its expiration into the country. Therefore, Ms. Allen spends months prior to the departure of each mission soliciting gifts of medicine that meet the government's requirements, prior to purchasing the additional medications that are needed to insure each mission's success.