Panama Update - Weebly
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Practicing dentistry in Cienaguita has always been interesting. Densts who have come as part of pe- riodic UMVIM teams have used a variety of chairs in a variety of locaons. One of the most memorable was a borrowed adarondack type chair mounted precariously on cinder blocks stacked two-high (maybe “too high” as well) and located on the front porch of Don Tato´s local dry goods store. Nobody will ever forget Catholic lay worker Doña Alicia´s mobile dental clinic built inside an old U.S. Army truck. In theory that should have enabled the densts to do fillings as well as extracons, but inevita- bly something always broke down. The last me we used the mobile clinic one of the chairs actually caught fire due to a short circuit. Luckily the paent escaped injury but was even more reluctant to make his next dental visit. Aſter witnessing the chair incident, Chicago denst Alan Kushner, proposed the construcon of a dental annex to our community center. Chicago architect, Sal Balsamo, a personal friend of Dr. Kushner, designed the building and church mem- ber and civil engineer Fidel Vega drew up the construcon plans. An UMVIM team from Dothan, AL took on the task of build- ing the eight pylons that would support the enre building. A lo- cal welder secured the I-beams and steel floor joists and another UM- VIM team covered them with sheet metal. Aſter several days of preparaon placing rebars and building forms, a very en- ergec team from Auburn UMC poured the enre slab one wheelbarrow at a me in a single day. The major part of the building fell to a mul-state UMVIM team (Michigan, South Carolina and Texas) organized by Bob and Joan Suda. Bob organized two back to back two-week teams with the goal of completely finishing the building. Bob himself was unable to join the team because of a heart condion that was dis- covered shortly before the mission was to be- gin. He sent a moving message to his team, many of whom had accompanied him in over twenty years of UMVIM missions. The team was devastated when they learned that Bob did not recover from his surgery but they valiantly carried on under the leadership of Bob Carr. Work progressed in spite of the fact that all the water for mor- tar mixing and all other necessies had to be hauled by bucket from a spring located a half mile down the moun- tainside. By the me the team leſt, they had finished the walls, roof, windows, drop ceiling and le floors, leaving enough funds to complete the installaon of an air condioning unit and storage cabinets. Cienaguita Dental Clinic Panama Update By Reverend Rhett Thompson United Methodist Missionary, Panama April 2013
Transcript of Panama Update - Weebly
Practicing dentistry in Cienaguita has always been interesting. Dentists who have come as part of pe-riodic UMVIM teams have used a variety of chairs in a variety of locations. One of the most memorable was a borrowed adarondack type chair mounted precariously on cinder blocks stacked two-high (maybe “too high” as well) and located on the front porch of Don Tato´s local dry goods store.
Nobody will ever forget Catholic lay worker Doña Alicia´s mobile dental clinic built inside an old U.S. Army truck. In theory that should have enabled the dentists to do fillings as well as extractions, but inevita-bly something always broke down. The last time we used the mobile clinic one of the chairs actually caught fire due to a short circuit. Luckily the patient escaped injury but was even more reluctant to make his next dental visit.
After witnessing the chair incident, Chicago dentist Alan Kushner, proposed the construction of a dental annex to our community center. Chicago architect, Sal Balsamo, a personal friend of Dr. Kushner, designed the building and church mem-ber and civil engineer Fidel Vega drew up the construction
plans. An UMVIM team from Dothan, AL took on the task of build-ing the eight pylons that would support the entire building. A lo-cal welder secured the I-beams and steel floor joists and another UM-
VIM team covered them with sheet metal. After several days of preparation placing rebars and building forms, a very en-ergetic team from Auburn UMC poured the entire slab one wheelbarrow at a time in a single day.
The major part of the building fell to a multi-state UMVIM team (Michigan, South Carolina and Texas) organized by Bob and Joan Suda. Bob organized two back to back two-week
teams with the goal of completely finishing the building. Bob himself was unable to join the team because of a heart condition that was dis-covered shortly before the mission was to be-gin. He sent a moving message to his team,
many of whom had accompanied him in over twenty years of UMVIM missions.
The team was devastated when they learned that Bob did not recover from his surgery but they valiantly carried on under
the leadership of Bob Carr. Work progressed in spite of the fact that all the water for mor-tar mixing and all other necessities had to be hauled by bucket from a spring located a half mile down the moun-tainside. By the time the
team left, they had finished the walls, roof, windows, drop ceiling and tile floors, leaving enough funds to complete the installation of an air conditioning unit and storage cabinets.
Cienaguita Dental Clinic
Panama UpdateBy Reverend Rhett ThompsonUnited Methodist Missionary, PanamaApril 2013
In the meantime, Dr. Kushner, with the help of many gener-ous patients as well as colleagues, raised enough funds to purchase two complete dental chairs, a compressor, suction and specialized dental cabinetry for each work station. In Au-gust he travelled to Panama to supervise the installation of all the equipment. Our local team of professionals (Chalino, Jaime, Carlos and Edwin) spent the week doing all the neces-sary plumbing and electrical work as well as the assembling of the dental cabinets. Now all that remained was to put the clinic into operation.
In October the clinic was inaugurated by a team from Canter-bury UMC organized by Rachel Estes and led by Trinity UMC member Martha Furio. Dr. Kevin Alexander, a veteran of the adarondack dental chair, did an outstanding job treating an endless stream of patients as we worked out the glitches in the system. He was ably assisted by a group of lay volunteers including his mom, nurse Lois Caldwell, social worker turned dental hygienist, Martha Furio and Dan the cleaning man (sterilization technician).
In November a dental team from Birmingham FUMC (Michi-gan) led by Ann Littleton really put the clinic to the test with the participation of three dentists. Peruvian dentist Fabiola Atoche used the reception area for triage and anesthesia so that Dr. Jeff Grabiel and his son Steve could get right to work as soon as the patients sat down in the dental chairs. The dental team was further optimized with the participation of Dr. Grabiel’s two dental hygienists, Cindy Clark and Alissa Longshore and nurse Zola Webster, an expert autoclave op-erator. Dr. Kushner and wife Ann came to observe the opera-tion of the clinic and to write up a manual of the protocols
that will help future teams to run a smooth operation and take care of the equipment and instruments.
We are looking for ways to maximize use of the clinic and at the same time insure its proper maintenance. We already have several UMVIM teams with dentists scheduled for 2013 and hope to add more. Right now disastrous is the only word to describe the state of dental health in the communities served by our community center. However our vision is that with access to adequate dental care on a regular basis as well as constant reinforcement of preventive measures we can achieve the goal of putting a toothy smile on every face.
Reverend Rhett Thompson is a Board of Global Ministries United Methodist missionary assigned to the Republic of Panama, serving as pastor of an Evangelical Methodist Church in Panama City.
In addition to his pastoral duties, Rev. Thompson coordinates efforts of the church to strengthen its outreach into the surrounding low-income neighborhood. Rhett also serves as the National Coordinator of Volunteers in Mission Program in Panama, helping mission teams with construction and medical services projects.
Learn more at http://rhettthompson.weebly.com or contact Rhett at [email protected].
1 Ramps, not steps, 2 Everything according to plan, 3 Steel rising, 4 Dental clinic ready for equipment, 5 “This dental clinic dedicated to the memory of Robert Suda”, 6 Dr. Kushner and the installation team, 7 Canterbury dental team, 8 Birmingham, MI team
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