REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK.Byline: The Register-Guard Reporter Tim Christie and photographer Thomas Boyd Thomas Boyd may be
Going on a trip like this reminded me of going away to summer camp. It's a big, diverse group of people thrown together for an extended period, for good or ill. People got along well, as far as I could see, and few complained about the rough living conditions living conditions npl → condiciones fpl de vida living conditions npl → conditions fpl de vie living conditions living . But occasionally personalities rubbed the wrong way. I witnessed one little battle of wills during a trip to a village outside Barillas. The designated dentist on the trip was Dr. Peter Schopf, a good-natured but hard-core medical missionary from Austria. He and other Austrian doctors built a clinic in Burkino Faso, Africa. Schopf has a confident, almost arrogant air about him and a certainty about the way things should be done. He set up the dental clinic off the back of a pickup truck. Patients sat in two white plastic patio chairs under a makeshift canopy. Schopf, wearing a green felt fedora and light blue dentist's smock, wasn't doing delicate dentistry here. He was pulling teeth, and lots of them. Schopf grew impatient when one patient asked for just three teeth pulled when it was clear to him that she needed eight extractions. Just tell her we'll do what's necessary, he told Rosemary Miranda, a Sheldon High School Sheldon High School may refer to:
By the end of the day, Schopf pulled 60 teeth, including as many as 10 from a single mouth. But it's still not close to his busiest day in Africa, when he once pulled 200 teeth in a day. He was assisted this day by Heather Lashley, a 17-year-old junior at North Eugene High School North Eugene High School is a public high school of about 1,200 students in Eugene, Oregon, United States. It is located at 200 Silver Lane near the Santa Clara area of Eugene.[1] North Eugene's mascot is the Highlander. . Lashley had never worked as a dental assistant dental assistant n. A person trained to assist a dentist with clinical and administrative procedures. and it showed. Schopf was on her case from the start, but she gave it right back to him. Early on, Lashley filled a syringe with xylocaine, a painkiller, and handed it to Schopf. But she mishandled the syringe somehow and contaminated contaminated, v 1. made radioactive by the addition of small quantities of radioactive material. 2. made contaminated by adding infective or radiographic materials. 3. an infective surface or object. it. Schopf didn't hide his displeasure. "I can't even look at that. We need to be hygienic hy·gien·ic adj. 1. Of or relating to hygiene. 2. Tending to promote or preserve health. 3. Sanitary. ," he barked in his Austrian accent, and threw the syringe in the back of the pickup. Lashley, hands on hips, made a face. A short while later, she told Schopf, "I don't like you being mean to me." "I'm not mean to you - I'm tough," he said. He turned to Rosemary Miranda and asked, "Am I?" "A little," she allowed. WHO WENT Cascade Medical Team took 87 people to Guatemala: 78 from Lane County, two from Washington state, plus members from Austria, Denver, Philadelphia and St. Cloud, Minn. 15 physicians 28 nurses, including a nurse-anesthetist, a nurse-practitioner and a physician assistant 3 surgical scrub surgical scrub, n a health care provider's first hand and arm wash of the day prior to entering a sterile surgical field. It involves a systematic routine in which a minimum of 10 minutes are spent lathering, soaking, and brushing one hand and arm and techs 4 dentists 3 dental assistants 2 pharmacists 1 optometrist optometrist /op·tom·e·trist/ (op-tom´e-trist) a specialist in optometry. Optometrist A medical professional who examines and tests the eyes for disease and treats visual disorders by prescribing corrective 10 interpreters 11 cooks and helpers 4 general helpers 3 MacGyvers (fix-it folks) 1 chaplain 2 journalists |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion