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The Clinic of Love . . . La Clinica de los Niños . . . These are affectionate names for St. Andrew's Children's Clinic in Nogales, AZ, celebrating its 33rd year of giving free medical care to children from poor Mexican families.
Today, the caring parents' original idea flourishes. Housed in an Episcopal church just north of the Mexican border, St. Andrew's Children's Clinic welcomes almost 250 children and their families the first Thursday of each month, except hot July.
UA Journalism's Border Beat & Frontera 360 Special Report To view the Special report on the Border Beat website featuring a slide show, video and more, click here.
1.
Volunteers-from surgeons to food servers; many
come for an hour and stay connected for years. The children, from ages 1 month to 18 years, have a myriad of medical problems, from spina bifida to cerebral palsy, from Down's syndrome to speech and hearing problems, and more. X-rays, laboratory tests, prescriptions, orthopedic devices, and hearing aids are just some of the aids these children need right now, or over time. Thursday Miracles
Because no one ever receives a bill, there is not a computer in sight. And medicine is practiced the old-fashioned way, with scrupulous patient records in plain manila folders, and doctors, nurses, and students solving problems directly in stand-up conferences.
Vans, driven by volunteers, arrive from the Border-la línea-with their important cargo. The Parish Hall is now a waiting room where children greet one another and the volunteers (and Santa Claus in December). Soon the medical professionals, many from the University of Arizona College of Medicine, check in and begin to see their patients. Each medical specialty occupies its own corner of the Church building:orthopedics in the gaily painted day care center; pediatrics in the stained glass-lit hallway; orthotics in the choir room; audiology in the sacristy, a baptismal font adjacent; physical therapy in the front hall.In one room, a speech pathologist works with children with cleft palate and hearing disorders. Nearby, another speech pathologist works with children with cerebral palsy.
Within
a few hours, each child will see a specialist, perhaps more. Some patients willreceive
medications; others will be
On board most Clinic days are 2 orthopedic surgeons and several orthopedic residents and students, 5 pediatricians, 2 neurologists, 1 pediatric cardiologist, 6-8 medical students, 1 ophthalmology therapist, 1 equipment technician to fit wheel chairs, walkers, crutches, and other aids. Nearly 100 lay volunteers make the day run smoothly. Each year approximately 36 children receive free orthopedic surgeries, 15 have cleft palate surgery and 3 undergo miscellaneous other surgeries at Shriners as well as University (of Arizona) Medical Center, Tucson Medical Center, St. Joseph's Hospital of Carondelet Health Network, and selected hospitals in Mexico. Beautiful Pay-Offs
Young Luis Enrique de la Cruz came to the Clinic with neuromotor disabilities and severe weakness of speech muscles. He now owns a computer business and works for his local government in Sonora. Rosa, age 15, volunteers at the Clinic. Once unable to hear or speak, a quality hearing aid and speech lessons enable her to thrive. Clinic roots as a teaching center continue with the University of Arizona College of Medicine, which sends students to work directly with the families. The Clinic also fosters a connection with health professionals in Mexico, teaching them to care for their own. Dedicated volunteers appear and new sources of funding are discovered regularly. The Future - What Lies Ahead.... What lies ahead for the Clinic? Like everything
around it, it cannot escape the winds of change that are altering
the economic and political landscape that surrounds it. While
it must hold fast to its tradition of personal volunteerism at
the heart of its service, there are certain areas that must evolve
if it is to stay true to its mission of providing free medical
care to the poor, disabled and disadvantaged children of Mexico.
Areas to explore in the years ahead include:
1. Building a stronger financial base of support through regular and renewable contributions to the Clinic's operating and program costs. While individual donations (now close to 50% of the budget) will always be an important way to support and participate in the work of the Clinic, larger contributions, especially from private sector sources in Mexico and the U.S., are needed and will be aggressively pursued. 2. Supporting the volunteer medical professionals who are the core of the Clinic's services through such initiatives as obtaining malpractice insurance and establishing the Clinic as an official training site with regional medical education programs at the University of Arizona, the Shriners hospitals and elsewhere. 3. While continuing the wonderful collaboration with the St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Nogales that has benefited so many children over the years, commit to exploring the creation of a Clinic facility better suited to professional medical care. The prospect of having donated property for such a new facility adjacent to the church will ensure that this unique partnership with the Church will be as important a part of the Clinic’s future as it has been of its past and present. The possibility of our own building has taken a giant step towards realization with the commitment of the Chamberlain family to set up a building fund with an initial $100,000 contribution. We ask others to assist with contributions to this fund. 4. Creating a volunteer coordinator position to make better use of the amazing resources of time, talent and life experience that exist in such communities as Green Valley, Tubac and Nogales. And, along with that effort on the U.S. side, must come an equally vigorous effort to recruit and involve volunteers in Mexico, especially from the communities that send numbers of their children to the Clinic. There already exists a strong volunteer effort in these areas. Now is the time to reinforce and expand it. 5. Transferring more of the Clinic's operations to Mexico. The recent cleft palate operations at the CIMA hospital in Hermosillo are a dramatic example of how cost and travel time can be dramatically reduced in some instances by bringing the program to the children rather than having them come to the Clinic. 6. Providing medical, home and school care skills and expertise to health professionals, educators and parents in Sonora to enable them to better treat their own children at home and in their communities. Sharing training programs and resources on both sides of the border can increase the numbers of children receiving assistance while improving the quality of care to the whole community. |
One
autumn day in 1973 in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, some concerned parents of children
with cerebral palsy began a small home school. The public school system had no
place for their children. The therapist who came to teach them recruited a doctor
to attend to medical needs.
St.
Andrew's Church bustles on Clinic days. That's when it is quickly transformed
into a medical clinic. What may look like disorder to a visitor is a tried and
true procedure. Everyone has an important job to do and knows how to do it well.
As
the morning gears up, women from the community hurry to serve snacks to families
who have traveled for hours or all night by bus. Others prepare lunch. Some volunteers
gather and set out medical record files, ready for each specialist. Interpreters
stand by. A craft table is set up to occupy the children while they wait. Volunteers
sort and bag donated clothes and food from Borderland Food Bank to be given to
families at day's end. Outside, a local Rotary club 
donates
a candy-apple red wheelchair to the Clinic.
There
is a certain hum and buzz as children with major health problems and their loving
parents gather with the medical staff. Interpreters are called from one group
to another. A dad stands by holding a Teddy bear while his son is examined. The
atmosphere is charged with possibilities.
fitted
for a brace or artificial limb; some will be scheduled for follow-up tests in
Tucson or surgeries to be done in Tucson or at Shriners hospitals in Sacramento,
CA and Spokane, WA.
The
estimated dollar value of time donated each year to St. Andrew's
Children's Clinic is approximately $1.5 million.
A
former patient, now a young law student at the University of Hermosillo, Mexico,
recently visited. In 1979, she arrived with a deformed neck and back; surgery
and braces corrected the problem, and determination and faith did the rest. |
