Led by Dr. Ed Zuroweste, Drs. Laurel Pellegrino, Lila Worden, Brett Wanamaker, three Johns Hopkins fourth-year residents, Dr. Mish Mizrahi, a family practice attending physician from UCLA, and Mike Piorunski, an Environmental and Occupational Health Program Associate with the Migrant Clinicians Network, the Johns Hopkins brigade spent two weeks immersed in the daily healthcare needs of the Santa Lucia area.

Accompanied by our nurses and Social Service doctors, they visited some of our most remote clinics and communities. While some students attended patients in our traditional field clinics, others assisted with the vaccinations. Dr. Pellegrino, who will begin her Psychiatry residency in July, had the opportunity to see patients in her field at the Santa Lucia clinic. Brigade members conducted home visits and gave charlas, or health education talks, to hypertensive, diabetic, and pregnant patients. Both the students’ and the audience’s favorite tool, by far, was a sugar-filled zip-lock bag demonstrating the actual amount of sugar in one bottle of Coke.

In their off-time, the brigade forded the Rio Torola, toured the La Esperanza hospital, and played a lot of Catchphrase. This group was open to experiencing everything from grunt work to taking night call and really went above and beyond in filling out our government paperwork. Thank you to Johns Hopkins and Dr. Zuroweste for your continued support, and for the brigade members’ tireless efforts on the ground in Intibucá.

For more photos from the brigade, check our Facebook page.