Medical Mission Trip: Nuevo Progresso, Mexico

Small patient from Mexico

From October 5 to 10, 2010, I was part of a mission team composed of 15 medical personnel and 15 construction workers that went to Nuevo Progresso, Mexico. The purpose of the trip was to build a second story addition on a building that currently houses a school and to set up a medical clinic and pharmacy in a nearby church building.

Warning: Some of the medical images below are graphic.

Nuevo Progresso is a small city of 50,000 people that’s located just over the US-Mexico border, southwest of Brownsville, Texas and directly south of Mercedes, Texas. My home church, First United Methodist Church of Bowling Green, Ohio, is a sister church to the one in Nuevo Progresso.

We arrived in Mercedes, Texas, on October 5, 2010. We were housed in a building run by a local Methodist church. In the beginning, 12 men shared one room. By the end of our stay, there were only four men staying in the room. The others moved to quieter quarters because of LOUD snoring on the part of two team members. I stuck it out, but sleeping was sometimes difficult.

Each day, we were loaded into a van and transported across the border into Mexico, which is patrolled by military personnel on the Mexican side. Once on Mexico, our group helped to convert an old, sturdy, abandoned church into a medical clinic with a large waiting room, pharmacy, supply room, three exam/treatment rooms, and a minor surgery room. After a day of setting things up, we were finally able to see patients. In the meantime, I worked with the construction crew, which had purchased materials and was busy building walls and laying tile for the second story of the building.

The people of Nuevo Progresso are poor and live day-to-day. Consequently, there is a high incidence of malnutrition, and many of the children and the elderly also suffer from anemia and dehydration. Since many of the people also have suppressed immune systems, infections are rampant.

The most common medical ailments are diabetes and hypertension (high blood pressure). The medical team evaluated their conditions and decided how best to attempt to control them, with an eye toward potential complications. We also supplied them with enough medication to last until a medical team returns to the town.

When the clinic finally opened, people of all ages lined up outside, waiting to be seen. By the end of the fifth day, we had treated 360 patients and performed two surgeries.

On a practical level, many of the people of Nuevo Progresso don’t have enough money to purchase ordinary items like eyeglasses and shoes. In the future, the medical mission team plans to expand its work by including dispensaries for eyeglasses, shoes and clean socks. I will write more about opportunities to help in those areas in the future.

In general, I found the Mexican people to be very pleasant and grateful for our help, and they made it clear that they love their neighbors to the north. There are plans to expand the medical coverage of this team to two or even three times per year. The next team will leave after the first of the year.

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Mexico

Mission Trip