Foxworthy Returns from Guatemala Mission Project
Linda Foxworthy treats patients in Guatemala.
Each February, Linda Foxworthy, RNC, NP, nurse practitioner at Brookside Community Health Center, sees patients at an outdoor clinic seated at a wooden table with benches. Her patients have a variety of needs and medical problems, including respiratory illnesses, diarrheal diseases, frequent pregnancies and high infant mortality rates. The patients live in villages surrounding the town of San Lucas Toliman in Guatemala, where Foxworthy spends several weeks a year providing medical care.
Foxworthy and Bobby Gottlieb, MD, of Brookside, have participated for the past seven years in the San Lucas Health Project, an effort launched in 1964 to improve conditions in the region. “It’s a wonderful experience working in this beautiful country,” Foxworthy said. “I am amazed by the warmth and spirit of the people there.”
Foxworthy and Gottlieb support health promoters based in the town and surrounding villages, whether they’re treating patients, conducting home visits to survey patients with tuberculosis or educating children about dental care.
In the remote villages, good medical care is rare. The nearest hospital that provides advanced care and trauma care is a two-and-a-half-hour truck ride over the mountains. “Many of the people we see can’t take a day off from work to go to the doctor,” Foxworthy said. The average person working in the fields earns about $25 to $30 a week, rendering the $50 ride to the hospital out of reach. There is, however, a hospital in San Lucas Toliman staffed by a Guatemalan doctor and medical volunteers, where many patients can receive other types of quality medical care.
“I really think things have improved in the years we’ve been going to San Lucas Toliman,” Foxworthy said. “The work of local health promoters and full time medical staff there has made a difference.”
Foxworthy’s experiences with patients and health care in Guatemala carry over to her role at Brookside, where she has worked for 21 years. “Many of our patients here are immigrants, and seeing Guatemala helped give me a sense of what many of my patients have left and they’ve given up,” Foxworthy said. “Those who emigrate find better services here, but they have lost their homes and communities.”