McMaster doctor saving lives in Guatemala

Working as a doctor in Guatemala has shown McMaster graduate Rebekah Shoop just how lucky Canadians are in our health care system.

"Things were pretty extreme," Shoop told CBC Hamilton. "It was shocking to me, and it was eye-opening. It made me realize that all of us as human beings are so fragile."

Shoop first visited the mountain region of Comitancillo, Guatemala as a student.

'Emergency rooms are often loaded with people just sitting crumpled against the hallway wall because there's no one there to attend to them' —Dr. Rebekah Shoop

She'd see people with tuberculosis and cancer who might go months or years without treatment. People with deformities from broken bones that hadn't healed properly. Women who had delivered a stillborn child and then discovered a twin, unbeknownst to anyone.

"But I was amazed with their strength, resilience and character," she said. "These people are so friendly, so diligent, and so hopeful."

She was smitten with the Mayan people and their home, and needed to find out what made them tick, she says. But to do that she needed something to keep her there — and that was nursing.

After years of heading back and forth to the Guatemalan municipality — first as a nurse, then a medical student and resident — Shoop helped start Alianza, an outpost clinic and education centre in the rural area.

"Our aim as a tiny nonprofit is to help young people reach their educational goals through scholarships, and to help build and sustain a community center, staffed by local people, to offer basic health services," Shoop said.

It's what she calls a "drop in the bucket," but a necessary one. There is one 800-square-foot public health centre for the 60,000 people living in the region.

There are two Cuban doctors and one Guatemalan general practitioner working, but no emergency resuscitation equipment in these mountains. People have to travel miles to reach a hospital. Until very recently, there was no ambulance.

"It's really understaffed," Shoop said. "Emergency rooms are often loaded with people just sitting crumpled against the hallway wall because there's no one there to attend to them."

Doctors see upwards of 50 patients a day — by contrast, when doing her family residency in Hamilton, she'd see about 25 patients on a very busy day.

"These doctors don't have the time to address the issues at hand," she said, adding that the four minutes a person with cancer might get is just not sufficient.

"You see comments from people here saying 'oh I received such terrible care, they didn't have room for me for me at the hospital so they had to fly me to Calgary.'"

"What are you even talking about?" She asked, bewildered. "How is that bad care? They flew you to Calgary for free."

She said Canadians should focus attention on the region — because of the health care situation and because Canadian mining companies are working in the country.

"The right to health care shouldn't end at the Canada/U.S. border," Shoop said. "We shouldn't be satisfied with ourselves as members of the human race until we all have it.

For more information on Alianza and to find out how you can get involved, click here.