Sometimes I travel to see the world; sometimes the world comes to me. Of late, I regularly have been providing some of the medical care at the largest refugee reception center in Tucson.
We feed them, screen them for maladies that might affect them during their subsequent travel, house them for one to three nights, provide them with additional clothes they may need, and arrange for their bus or air travel to their sponsor β usually family β elsewhere in the U. Quite a few UA physicians, residents, and medical students have been participating regularly.
In a side room, volunteers patiently work with a volunteer language professor in Michigan, who translates via speakerphone the vital information needed to process a Russian family. While most people up to 60 a day speak Spanish, many are more comfortable in one of the many indigenous languages. What we tell the parents is that within a couple of months, their children will be speaking fluent English; probably not true for most of the adults.
Medically, we screen the patients, provide basic care, administer the influenza vaccine supplied by the county health department, and refer out those who need anything more. Send me a note kvi email. Staffed by volunteer medical professionals, students, and others, the center serves the medically indigent. Clinic medical care, labs, and imaging are free to the mostly Spanish speaking patients, and the clinic pays the costs for additional medical services other than surgery and when they must be sent to outside specialists.
Box , Tucson, AZ , or email it to Nicole Glasner, executive director for development, at exec clinicaamistad. The clinic is a registered c 3 charitable organization. These included identifying a large extended family with tuberous sclerosis that we investigated because of a suspicion and a child with abnormal seizures.
