Mobile Free Clinic

Dr. Nghia from Pasteur Institute asked me if I would like to join his crew of merry people to the Tien Giang province to provide free medical care in a rural area. To my wonderful surprise, every weekend many physicians like Dr. Nghia in large groups reach out to the rural communities without compensation and on their own free time. He travels with different medical groups to different locations each weekend treating the marginalized of Viet Nam. The nameless wealthy Sai Gon donors behind the financial undertaking of these mobile clinics usually contribute $400-$700 per trip per group.

One Saturday morning at 6 am I hopped in a van full of fifteen other generous souls, ranging from pharmacists and friendly neighbor to doctors. Immediately, I was handed a list of meds that the crew had bought to provide for this clinic day. Other than the antibiotics, 60% of the meds were surprisingly foreign to me. Even my pocket pc medical programs did not recognize many of the medications. A few were herbal, but most were European in derivation. A doctor next to me painstakingly described each medication for me and then Dr. Nghia kindly did round two of “Let’s teach Cuong the meds!”

The short tutorials symbolized the “Go” signal. That is, they were prepared to let me run loose by allowing me to prescribe meds to the patients without their observation or signature. With seven years of post-secondary American education, the physicians and others considered to me to be a colleague. On the other hand, maybe they were unsure how to categorize me, when it only takes six years of post-secondary Viet education to become a practicing physician. Thus, for the day I ambivalently became “Dr. Cuong, the American.”

After forcing down a memory full of med indications, I sat down like a doctor and a swarm of patients started to roll in the random office room in the random community building in a random rural town. Fortunately I sat next to Dr. Nghia to help remind me the purpose and dosage of each med. Most importantly Dr. Nghia was my guiding translator when I became hopelessly loss in the Vietnamese language.

Mostly senior citizens, the four doctors and I treated 500 patients within a five-six hour period. Most of complaints occurred months ago and were the result of natural old age. The common complaints were:

• Pain: muscle ache, head aches, bone aches, joint aches - typical pain for aging people
• Sleeplessness
• Stomach reflux type symptoms
• Cough
• Stuffed up nose
• General weakness/lethargy
• Eye irritation
• Hypertension
• Dizziness

I did not hand out any antibiotics, since I did not detect any real signs of pneumonia, sinusitis, or infectious process with my clinical exams. Most of the time I prescribed vitamins, acetaminophen, aspirin, hypertensive meds, and acid reflux meds for only 2-3 weeks worth of pills. I leaned over to Dr. Nghia multiple times to clarify dosages and appropriate meds for certain symptoms. One patient with back pain keenly noted my amateur status and gently pointed to a series of meds like the antibiotic amoxicillin to me. I smiled and explained that the antibiotic would not be appropriate for his pain and he nodded with reluctant acceptance.

One by one, the patients sat down grateful, ignored my accent, and treated me as a fellow Viet. I took their blood pressure, listened to their heart and lungs, and comforted them. Patients always left smiling and appreciative even though I usually gave them only a handful of over-the-counter pills. I noticed that my straightforward physical examinations made them feel instantaneously healthier. They simply wanted me to say, “Everything will be just fine. Everything will be alright.