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 […]
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. […]
What is Leishmaniasis??
Leishmaniasis (often called “leish” or ‘peeko de vay-hoo-co’ by the Ngabe) is a tropical skin infection found in Panama. In Panama, Leshmaniasis exists in a natural reservoir of sloths and anteaters and is then passed to humans by female sandflies (chitras). Once infected, a small red bump will appear on the skin, turn into […]
Floating Doctors Welcomes Dr. Dan Evers Aboard!
At last, a veterinarian has come to stay! Dr. Dan is a wonderful addition to the Floating Doctors team here in Panama–it is very hard to work in remote rural communities and see animals riddled with parasites or with horrible injuries that go untreated. Dan and his wife Cindy moved in right next door to […]
Dream Hopping: A Recount of How One Man’s Vision Changed My Life Forever –Blog by volunteer Graham Lichtman
It had been roughly 48 months since I first began working with Floating Doctors and 30 months since my last day on the Southern Wind. Strangely enough, after spending a semester and half helping to transform a dilapidated boat into a beaming vessel of hope, the feeling of wanting persisted. You see, amid all the […]
“But I will preserve the purity of my life and my arts…” -Hippocratic Oath Blog by Dr. Claire Antoszewski
There comes a time in any journey, when initial prejudices have been shed and before nostalgia settles, when one can see things as they are. I spent the month of October working with Floating Doctors, and for me that moment came while traveling from Bocas town to Kusapin on the panga, the group’s small run-about […]
One Life…Length: Indeterminate. -by Dr. Ben
“If we listened to our intellect we’d never have a love affair. We’d never have a friendship. We’d never go in business because we’d be cynical: “It’s gonna go wrong.” Or “She’s going to hurt me.” Or,” I’ve had a couple of bad love affairs, so therefore . . .” Well, that’s nonsense. You’re going to miss […]
“Boundaries” by Volunteer Rosabelle Conover
The balcony of the warehouse where I reside faces a swamp. As I drink my coffee in the morning, the roar of incoming airplanes at the airport on my left funnels hundreds of tourists to Bocas del Toro. On the right lies a mangrove swamp where the indigenous community of La Solucion teeters atop houses and shops built […]
Peace Corps Eye-View of A Floating Doctors Mission
“Lifeboat Chronicles” July 29, 2012 Blog by Las Tablas Peace Corps Volunteer Doug Martin Sometimes, early in the morning, the mist from overnight rain storms envelopes the town and hides her from outsiders. Sometimes the murky brown waters of the Sixaola River creep higher and higher until they stumble up and over the only road […]