MEDICAL MISSIONS: Drs. Bobby Clayton & Sam Del Rio In Nicaragua

“You can give them hope, and that can last a lifetime.”

DR. ROBERT CLAYTON has no illusions about the effectiveness of his medical mission trips to the Central American country of Nicaragua.

The work is not medically rewarding, he admits. “You’re not curing anybody for a lifetime. If they have sinus problems, they’re going to come back,” said Clayton, a Cocoa Beach, Florida gynecologist who has taken more than a dozen one or two-week working trips to the country.

And still, there’s satisfaction in healing at its most basic. “There’s no medical record, no liability,” Clayton said. “You’re just doing medicine.”

He and his wife, Jan, and three daughters travel under the umbrella of WEGO, an interdenominational Christian outreach organization.

Dr. Sam Del Rio finds himself at the beginning of what might be a similar journey of regular trips to the third-world country. Del Rio spent a week in Nicaragua, his second trip in less than a year and what he hopes will be an annual opportunity to help.

The two performed different types of medicine, but both recount similar experiences of trying to do what they could in the face of poor conditions and overwhelming need.

Clayton, 55, visits with teams of doctors, putting together medical clinics in outlying areas around Managua, the capital city. Most of the group’s work is done in Jinotepe, a little over an hour’s drive southeast of the city.

Previous trips included surgery in makeshift conditions. Clayton recalled requesting new gloves after a large dung fly landed on his hand during an operation. Local assistants were reluctant to part with new gloves until Clayton insisted. Surgery was done in rooms without air conditioning or monitors; the anesthesiologist tracked the patient’s condition by checking heart rhythm and blood pressure.

Clayton discontinued that service after he found he no longer was helping poor patients with no where else to go. Instead, he found his patients more often were local doctors’ relatives and VIPs. He returned to clinic work, leading teams of three to five physicians who would see hundreds of patients a day. “We’re serving people that don’t get medical care at all,” he said. Typical problems included sinus ailments related to inhaling smoke from cooking, parasitic infections, malnutrition and burns.

Effects Profound and Lasting

Also along for many of the trips were the couple’s three daughters. Now grown, the three started accompanying their parents on trips when the youngest was five.

“It’s been a phenomenal thing for our family growing up, to see people so less fortunate,” Clayton said. The girls would help lead vacation Bible schools or do administrative work for the clinics. The effect has been profound and lasting, and Clayton recommends such experiences for other children.

“They end up not wanting as much. They bond with kids down there who have nothing, and they see they can still be happy,” Clayton said, noting that the same change happened to him and his wife. “We ended up not wanting as many things as we thought we wanted,” he said.

The Claytons remember with a laugh their youngest girl’s plaintive request one year, when she asked, “Can’t we go on vacation somewhere other than a third-world country?” Despite the temporary wistfulness, she and her sisters have continued to take mission trips as adults.

The Claytons know their own lives have been changed, and they hope the people they served in Nicaragua can say the same. Dr. Clayton believes his medical expertise sometimes served as the draw for a larger purpose. Members of the mission group also would offer prayer and the gospel message of salvation – a healing that would last longer than relief from sinus trouble.

“You can give them hope, and that can last a lifetime,” Clayton said.

Teaching Nicaraguan Doctors

Del Rio is looking to make a long-lasting change as well, teaching Nicaraguan doctors how to perform women’s health procedures that show better results than their current methods.

He spent a week in the country, demonstrating pelvic floor reconstruction using a mesh device that supports the urethra like a sling. U.S. doctors have been using the method to treat urinary incontinence for a decade.

The request for the teaching session came last year, when Del Rio, 45, visited with his medical partner and volunteers from Calvary Chapel on Merritt Island, which he attends with his wife, Lydia. The couple has two children.

Del Rio found the Nicaraguan doctors well-trained in general medicine, but subspecialties were lacking – as were facilities and equipment. Chickens and pigeons wander through the grounds at the women’s and children’s hospital. The loud hum of a generator is a frequent background noise, thanks to rolling blackouts that plague the city. Doctors use only the first floor of the three-floor building, fearing the upper two floors are unstable after an earthquake several years ago. Armed guards are a common sight, whether at the hospital or a church. Del Rio describes the ambulance as looking like something out of “M*A*S*H.”

There’s one ultrasound machine for the entire state-funded hospital – Del Rio’s Viera office alone has four – but it’s broken. The facility has one laparoscopic camera, also broken. If doctors want to look inside patients, they have to open them surgically.

Wuesthoff, Drug Companies Donates Supplies

Thanks to Del Rio’s most recent trip, Nicaraguan doctors have new knowledge and a supply of medical equipment donated by Wuesthoff Health System and drug companies. They and others also have heard a message of spiritual hope from the team, including Del Rio’s father-in-law, a retired minister. The give and take, however, definitely goes two ways. “I think we get blessed more than the people we’re trying to help,” Del Rio said.

He hopes to set up an annual teaching trip, next time perhaps tackling laparoscopy. He’d also like to see equipment installed, provided there was the expertise in place to maintain it.

In the meantime, images of the need in the country stay with him. Few educational opportunities, high unemployment and average annual salaries of less than $500 create a society that can be overwhelming to Americans. Especially those, like Del Rio, who got a close-up look at the dump people, who have created a squatters camp and make their living searching for useable items in the garbage.

Their situation was hard to see, and yet Del Rio is focusing on the opportunity he has to use his medical knowledge and fluency in Spanish to help.

“You do what you can do within your means. You’re not going to change Nicaragua overnight. You do what you can and go home and feel good about that,” he said.

“I know it is difficult to portray how impactful these trips are on all of us Americans."

"It makes us all appreciate our democratic government, good hospitals, well-trained physicians and clean water to drink. In the 13 years we have traveled to Nicaragua, its amazing to see the changes — paved roads, new hospitals and the development of a middle class. But there will always be the very, very poor - the peasants as they were once called -  who work the fields for $30 a week to feed their family.  These are the “forgotten ones” that our teams will continue to serve.” —  JAN CLAYTON

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Tagged as: Dr. Allen Earl, Dr. Dan Hammond, Dr. Lewis Soccarris, DR. ROBERT CLAYTON, Dr. Sam Del Rio, Dr. Sarah Thorton, Dr. Svetlana, HAYLEY CLAYTON, Health First, Jan Clayton, Jinotepe, Lydia Del Rio, Managua, Medical Mission, NATALIE CLAYTON, Nicaragua, WEGO, Wuesthoff Health System