Photo By Staff Sgt. Scott Griffin | Sgt. 1st Class Trini Ta, noncommissioned officer in charge of the medical readiness...... read more read more
EL COCO, El Salvador – More than 30 soldiers from the U.S. Army Reserves provided critical medical services to locals in El Coco, El Salvador, April 13-17. Working in conjunction with personnel from El Salvador, Canada and Brazil, the medical professionals provided thousands of Salvadorans with much-needed vaccinations, dental work, optometry and more.
“We’re doing the MEDRETE in El Coco province, which is getting all the local people from the area – which is around 600 to 1,000 people a day – we get them through general medical, dentistry and optometry,” said U.S. Army Spc. Brock Mitchell Tucker, of Greenville, Texas, a medic with the 144th Minimal Care Detachment in San Diego. “We make sure they can have glasses and, if they have tooth aches, we get their teeth pulled and we also provide general medical treatment.”
“We go into a location and set up, usually at a school – somewhere large enough to hold patients and organize patient flow,” said U.S. Army Capt. Christopher White, officer in charge of the El Coco MEDRETE.
“Typically we’re working in an area where patients don’t get medical services on a regular basis,” White said. “We come into a location where there are no medical providers available within a great distance, so we’re able to provide services for patients who wouldn’t be treated in years – sometimes never.”
Salvadorans waited patiently in the intense heat for the rare opportunity to receive a wide range of important medical services.
“We have dental, optometry, internal medicine, basic medicine,” White said. “There’s a gynecologist, pediatrics and we’re doing vaccinations for the children for hepatitis and tetanus.”
“We’re working with the host nation, so we have host nation doctors here and the Salvadoran air force and army, to provide medical, dental and vision care to the local population,” said U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Summer Ramjak from San Bernardino, California, a medic with the 349th Combat Support Hospital out of Bell, California.
“It’s been great! Communication was a challenge initially, but we’ve breached the language barrier. We have awesome interpreters here and many of our staff and theirs are bilingual,” Ramjak said.
“Most of what we’re treating is just general body pains – aches and pains, back pains, long-term injuries,” Ramjak said. “Some of the treatments that make the greatest impact are for the patients we treat in dental – if you have a tooth that hurts then you’re in pain so you’re angry, you can’t eat so you’re hungry ... So we’re able to provide pain relief for that and antibiotics to cure any infection that may have developed over time.”
The medics and specialists of the gathered units also benefit from the MEDRETE mission.
“A lot of our specialists – especially our medics – don’t get this training on a regular basis because we’re Reservists,” White said. “It gives them the real-world experience they need to be ready to move into a deployed environment as well as showing our providers what a deployed environment might actually look like.”
White was pleased to see the medical professionals overcome environmental stressors and chaotic working scenarios.
“Morale is really high, everyone seems to be working really well together,” White said. “We’re coming together from approximately six different [medical units], so bringing those people together can be a little difficult but this has been spectacular.”
Working with the local and international agencies has gone smoothly as well.
“Working with them has been exceptional,” Ramjak said. “We’ve built incredible morale with the locals and we work very well as a team.”
The gathered medics said they find their labors to be their own reward.
“For us, it’s giving back to the community,” White said.
“Most rewarding for me is interaction with the people – talking with the kids, talking with adults, learning new things about their culture, learning new words in Spanish and just kind of crossing those barriers between their culture and our culture,” Ramjak said. “When there’s a better understanding of another culture, I believe that you can provide better health care.”
U.S. military personnel are conducting comprehensive humanitarian and civic assistance exercises in El Salvador in conjunction with Brazilian, Canadian, Chilean and Salvadoran militaries. Troops specializing in engineering, construction and health care are providing needed services to Salvadoran communities while receiving valuable deployment training and building important relationships with partner nations.
| Date Taken: | 04.17.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 04.18.2015 21:20 |
| Story ID: | 160440 |
| Location: | EL COCO, SV |
| Hometown: | BELL, CA, US |
| Hometown: | GREENVILLE, TX, US |
| Hometown: | SAN BERNARDINO, CA, US |
| Hometown: | SAN DIEGO, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 427 |
| Downloads: | 8 |
This work, Army Reservists provide medical support in El Salvador, by SSG Scott Griffin, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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