Photo By Cmdr. Michael Cody | A doctor and medic from the U.S. Army Reserve’s 7454th Medical Operation Readiness...... read more read more
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JUTIAPA, Guatemala – Medical professionals from three U.S. military units and five countries, including the United States, provided care at no cost to hundreds of people – primarily farmers and members of farm families – from May 13 through May 16 during a global health engagement event at the Guatemalan army’s 3rd Infantry Brigade base here.
The event was held in a field hospital as part of CENTAM Guardian 2025, a U.S. Southern Command- and Guatemalan Ministry of Defense-sponsored exercise that reinforces the shared commitment of participating nations to regional security and stability through collaborative training and enhanced interoperability.
It included medical professionals from the U.S. Air Force’s 355th Medical Group from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, the U.S. Army Reserve’s 7454th Medical Operational Readiness Unit from San Antonio and the 188th Medical Group from the Arkansas Air National Guard, as well Guatemala’s Ministry of Health, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and Honduras.
Among them was Airman 1st Class Jennifer Vazquez, a medical administrative specialist with the 355th Medical Group who was participating in her first global health engagement.
“It definitely challenged me,” Vazquez said. In the clinic at Davis-Monthan, for instance, things are planned out and predictable.
“Here, you don’t know what to expect or what you will see,” she said. “It’s trying to do the best with what you have. You work with the people you are with, and you come together to help the patients.”
A fluent Spanish speaker, Vazquez sometimes translated for patients as they described their symptoms to doctors and nurses, then translated for the medical professionals as they explained their diagnoses and prescriptions. At other times, she walked patients to an on-site pharmacy, where she helped them understand how to take their medications.
In a particularly moving encounter, she and a military doctor comforted a young mother who, tests had revealed, was unexpectedly pregnant with her fourth child.
The full experience, Vazquez said, affected her personally and professionally.
“I’m gratified to be part of the mission, to see different kinds of backgrounds and experiences, especially the experiences of the patients,” Vazquez said. “It really opened my eyes. It made me bigger in that sense.”
As patients arrived at the field hospital site, often on foot from communities around Jutiapa, they were welcomed by representatives of the Ministry of Health, then waited under canopies for their turns. The first stop in the field hospital was an assessment tent, from which they were guided into one of two clinics for consultations and tests. Depending on their conditions, many patients received information at a separate station on dengue fever, which is common in the region.
Sgt. Dayna Zelaya, a laboratory technician with the 7454th Medical Operational Readiness Unit, led two local civilians in the field hospital’s laboratory. After she showed them how things are done in U.S. hospitals, they ran tests to discover what was going on in patients’ bodies.
When a Guatemalan mother asked Lt. Col. Kelly Morales, a doctor with the 7454th, to examine an ulcer on her infant daughter, tests indicated hemangioma – a noncancerous growth of blood vessels – rather than cancer.
The diagnosis and the doctor’s recommendation for treatment replaced the mother’s dread with hope, Zelaya said. Working in a field hospital provided a new perspective on her profession.
Laboratory technicians don’t typically see patients from the beginning to the end of their treatments, she said.
“We don’t actually see how they get better – the outcome of what happens,” Zelaya said. However, “Being next to Dr. Morales was an eye-opener. I was able to see how the doctor was able to aid the patient because of the lab work.”
Lt. Col. Peter Mudge, the commander of the 188th Medical Group and the officer in charge of the field hospital, said the change in the patients’ demeanor gave him joy. Going into the tents, they were worried; coming out after receiving treatment, they were happy.
Mudge, who estimated that he has participated in 15 global health engagements, said adversity always is part of the experience.
“It doesn’t matter how good you are at GHEs,” he said. “They can be chaotic and messy.”
The only generator might break down, for example.
Yet, Mudge said, “When you put people together with a vision, direction and a common purpose, then they are able to solve problems and move on to the next thing to make things better for patient care.”
“The teams crushed it the whole time on all fronts,” he said. “When everyone is learning and then working together to make processes better, it’s amazing to watch.”
On the first day of the event, 93 patients were treated and 26 prescriptions were filled. By the third day – the peak day – 138 patients were treated and 328 prescriptions were filled. In all, 449 patients were treated and 886 prescriptions were filled.
On May 20, to continue their development, all of the teams were scheduled to complete combat casualty care training, including triage, stop-the-bleed, obstructed airway and evacuation training. The following day, with soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Brigade, firefighters from Jutiapa and doctors from a local hospital, they were scheduled to carry out a mass casualty exercise.
The presence of medical professionals from the United States added to the credibility of the care that the patients received at the global health event – care that is usually postponed due to cost and distance, said Virginia Herzig, the chief of the search and rescue preparation department in the epidemiology and risk management directorate of the Ministry of Health.
The mass casualty training will strengthen the capacity of Guatemala’s global response teams, and together the two events accelerated the Ministry of Health’s readiness for its next mission, she said.
Next month, the ministry will deploy its field hospital for up to six months to Antigua Guatemala, supporting that city’s transition from an aging hospital building to new facilities there.
Since 2018, medical professionals from the ministry have been receiving classroom training from the Pan American Health Organization.
“With the invitation to CENTAM Guardian 2025,” Herzig said, “they felt motivated to finally integrate – to implement the medical emergency response team.”
| Date Taken: | 05.22.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 05.22.2025 17:40 |
| Story ID: | 498769 |
| Location: | GUATEMALA CITY, GT |
| Web Views: | 211 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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