him in January 2017. Below right, a Guatemalan mother from Coyalate poses with her children.
Hospital executive director, surgeons plan voluntary effort to Guatemala
Watch John Cox point out an overweight toddler in a photo amid a group of thin Guatemalan children and you start to believe in his mission.
The youngster has a condition that could claim his life. Cox hopes to change that by connecting the young boy and other villagers with physicians and other volunteers from Munson Medical Center. In January, John and a team from the hospital will travel to the remote village of Coyolate to provide a primary care clinic.
“We will be providing a clinic for about five of the days we are on the ground,” he said. “We also will be touring some other medical facilities within the region to evaluate opportunities to bring additional medical services to the region.”
Prior to joining the hospital as the executive director for Surgical Services in late 2015, Cox has spent vacations as a missionary working to build relationships in Coyolate, Guatemala through community clean water projects. The village is in a jungle region in the south of the nation that is home to native Mayan Indians and others who resettled there after the nation’s civil war.
In past years, the only medical care for Coyolate has been from two Oregon-based physicians who spend a week per year serving the local population. Many of the villagers do not have transportation to the 12-bed clinic an hour and a half away. Many cannot read. Some use a local witch doctor for care.
Now Cox is teaming up with general surgeon Walt Noble, M.D., FACS, and his wife, dermatologist Susan Noble, M.D., and orthopedic surgeon B. Scott Groseclose, M.D., and his wife, Jennifer, along with others for a planned week-long medical mission Jan. 14 - 21, 2017.
The team will provide a Primary Care and Dermatology clinic to the villagers in the Coyolate area. “There is no medical infrastructure so the physicians will have to rely on their own assessment skills. No imaging or labs will be available. We will bring in a basic formulary of medications recommended by the other physicians who have worked in the area,” he said. “They will see things that they don’t usually see, monkey bites for example.”
During previous trips, Cox and others from his church mission group, have established ties with the villagers by working with the Guatemalans to build water filters and install them in homes to provide safe drinking water. The death rate among youngsters age 5 and under is 20 percent – with many of them suffering from GI diseases brought about through unsafe water.
A current longer term goal for Cox involves working with the Guatemalan based organization, Mission Impact, to construct a new hospital that focuses on the underserved and can accommodate visiting medical teams. Construction of the new facility will hopefully begin in the next two years.
Cox is looking for others interested in making the trip with the team. Volunteers with or without medical skills are welcome. The team’s goal is to give access to medical care to those living in this remote region of the world.
“Sharing your time and talents through a mission trip will change you as a person. For that one week it is entirely about serving others and you will truly feel you made difference,” Cox said. “Every time I go down, I come back a better person.”
Anyone interested in volunteering and learning more about the trip can contact Cox at jcox02@mhc.net or call 231-935-5661.