When I left Los Angeles for Floating Doctors I was 27 years old. It was a rainy LA early morning. The streets were dark, empty, and glistening as my dad drove me to LAX. We spoke in short spurts…most of that ride was filled with a silent apprehension, both of us knowing deep down that […]
A different kind of surgery
As if partaking in a 4 day jungle clinic, searching the jungle for a girl with cleft palate, and showering in the river weren’t exciting enough, I had the privilege to partake in canine facial surgery. We stumbled upon an older black dog with a huge mass around it’s eye on our way back from […]
Playa Verde Clinic Opening
In a small jungle clearing on the Caribbean coast of north western Panama, a group of indigenous Ngäbe Indians in their finest traditional dress and an equally proud group of foreigners, with stethoscopes dangling around their necks, gathered to celebrate a landmark event: the opening of Floating Doctors first remote outpost clinic. It began as […]
Every life is special!
2/22/14 Mending Kids International (MKI) was starting our second day of medical clinics with Floating Doctors (FD) in Salt Creek Panama, a remote island in the Bora Del Toro archipelago. The first arrival was seen at intake by Dr. Kate Porter a phenomenal volunteer tropical medicine doctor working with the Floating Doctors this year. The […]
New Partners!
2014 is off to a running start as Floating Doctors and Mending Kids International (MKI) partner to bring Orthopedic Surgery to patients from across rural Panama! MKI is an American based charity that works to provide life changing surgeries for children around the world. From February 24th to the 28th MKI will be conducting an […]
Gusitvino’s Fight for Life
Gustivino is a 14 year-old Ngäbe indigenous boy for whom every day of life is victory. He lives in a remote mountain community in extreme poverty and in a home accessible only by miles of mud covered jungle trails. On our first visit to his remote community, he presented to us plagued by Tuberculosis and […]
A life changing 10 days spent with the Floating Doctors
I distinctly remember the morning of my first mobile clinic with the Floating Doctors. Only knowing the small group of UCLA nursing and nurse practitioner students in my group, we were anxious and excited to get started on our first full day of volunteering. We quickly began shaking hands and making introductions unaware of the incredible […]
Ngobe Patients By Lauren Sims
This week we have a blog post from UCI med student Lauren Sims. A group of UCI students came to us to work with the parteras (midwives) in some of our communities. In today’s post she talks about some of the patients she saw and what she learned in her time with us. -Kim Olpin […]
Late Night Emergency Evacuation from Rio Cana
At the end of August we held our first multi-day clinic in the community of Rio Cana. It is one of the most remote communities we have ever been to. While we were there a new mother became gravely ill and had to be evacuated. This is the story as told by Dr. Kim Wilson. […]
USC’s Global Medicine Students Share a Day in the Life with Floating Doctors: Part 2
This week I’d like to share with you our second guest blogger from the Master of Science in Global Medicine program at USC, Lily Sheshebor. -Kim Olpin Operational Manager The Power of Passion I have always thought that I wanted to be a doctor. I volunteered at clinics, studied rigorously for my MCATS, and […]