August 2009 - Volunteer Doctors

Each Tuesday we operate a medical clinic at the Food Bank in Juarez, Mexico. We call it “The Lord’s Clinic” and it provides a much-needed service to the poor people in the area. Aurora Alvarado, a registered nurse from El Paso, has headed up the clinic for over 20 years. Volunteer doctors and nurses have come and gone through the years but sometimes she has been the only trained medical person on site.
However two and a half years ago, two doctors started volunteering at the Lord’s Clinic and have been faithfully coming every week since then.

Dr. Guadalupe Apodaca and Dr. Guadalupe Ibarra heard about the clinic at the Lord’s Food Bank and about the great need in the area, and they came to offer their services. “The first time I walked into the clinic, I felt so peaceful and calm – like I’ve never felt before,” shared Dr. Ibarra. She knew there was something special about it and wanted to be a part of this outreach.

Dr. Apodaca first met Father Rick Thomas when she was 7 years old. “He started a prayer meeting at our house,” she told us. She is very happy to be a part of this ministry that he began. Dr. Apodaca’s husband is a pharmacist and he donates a lot of medicines to the clinic.

It’s not easy practicing medicine in such an impoverished area. The challenges are many and the medical staff often face difficult dilemmas. For example, many of the patients have high blood pressure. As most of us know, a person with high blood pressure needs to decrease their salt intake. But salt takes away hunger pangs and some of the patients who don’t have enough to eat put a lot of salt on a tortilla to ease their hunger. This causes their blood pressure to go sky high. So while the patients should be told, “Go easy on the salt,” what do you do about the hunger problem?

These two doctors don’t just stop at giving medical advice and prescriptions. Out of their own resources they bring large quantities of beans, rice, canned goods and clothing to the clinic to be given to those most in need. They have a heart to help the people and go out of their way to do so.

We are very blessed to have them serving with us. They have promised Aurora, “We’ll make sure that one of us will always be here.” And even though they have to juggle schedules and other commitments, we can be sure at least one of them always shows up.