The Amazon Medical Project

The Special Patients Fund enabled us to help several people who needed care that we could not provide, most notably the young woman with kidney failure, for whom we spent a little over $1,000 (which covered about ten days of hospitalization, if you can imagine that, in addition to a number of lab studies, procedures, and medications). Others who benefited were Nurse Carmen’s mother, for whom we contributed about $200 to the cost of her hysterectomy; $250 on the girl with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis; $330 for Juvencio’s five year old son who had what looked like acute appendicitis; and several persons for whom we paid the cost of services not available through our clinic. The total amount spent in this category was just above $2,000.
Clinic Operations cost more than in years recently past -- $19,500 in 2009 compared to just under $14,000 in 2008. Our costs for basic clinic expenditures such as laundry detergent and bleach, coffee and tea, paper and ink and a new printer, costs for motokar when we are running clinic errands in Iquitos, a few medical books, rechargeable batteries for our instruments, etc., remained stable. We also bought a couple of new filing cabinets to accommodate our growing number of patient charts, and replaced aging curtains, mattresses, sheets and pillows when we moved into the new clinic.
Nearly half of Clinic Operations this year, however, went to three relatively large projects. We spent almost $4,000 to replace the solar system's worn-out batteries and to add a couple more solar panels; and replaced the ailing vaccine refrigerator for $3,250. Then, in a flourish of extravagance, the clinic covered the costs of fixing my house after a tree fell on the back corner and took out about half the roof; and installation of my wonderful indoor plumbing, for a total cost of about $2,000 between the roof and the bathroom. That accounts for what we spent in Peru.

            In the U.S., the Amazon Medical Project spent approximately $86,000. Of this, my salary and benefits accounted for over half -- $11,000 in salary ($1,000 a month for nine months, then at the end of the year the board voted to double my salary, so I received $2,000 in December); $25,700 put into retirement investments in my name; a little under $7,000 for health insurance, $2,800 for Social Security, and $1,866 for plane tickets to get me back and forth between Peru and Wisconsin.
            Then, we paid $24,000 to Kim Stokes to do our accounting and a multitude of administrative chores, about $3,000 for medical equipment and medicines purchased in the U.S., $3,444 for printing, and around $7,500 for things like telephone and Internet, postage, office supplies, bank fees, etc.
            We also collected $13,554 for the Amazon Dental Project, all of which was in the form of donations specifically made for this project, so I have not included these monies in our overall accounting. This item will not be on the 2010 report, since the Amazon Dental Project has now launched its own non-profit organization.
            As always, all these funds came from those of you who are reading these letters, and as always, we thank you most gratefully for your continuing generosity. Without you, we would not be able to continue taking care of all our patients.

So, now let's talk about those patients. We served a grand total of 2807 persons, about the same as in 2008 -- but in 2008, we were open all year, and in 2009 we were closed for a full month while we dismantled the old clinic and moved into the new one. Eighty persons simply purchased or were given medicines (we bring toothpaste and shampoo from the city, as well as ibuprofen and acetaminophen, and offer them for sale at our cost, since these items are not readily available in the rainforest). The other 2727 people all received some sort of service, either a medical or dental consult, vaccines, or other evaluation and/or treatment. Most of our patients -- 87% -- had been to the clinic at some time in the past, with the remainder being new to us. Females slightly outnumber males, 58% to 42%, because it is the women who bring their children in to be seen, and who receive family planning services; whereas the men, even when they bring their families to the clinic, tend to hang about outside the clinic, fearful to come in lest they be shanghaied into getting a vaccine or some other noxious treatment. Children, whom we define as those 14 and younger, constituted 43% of our total patients, and adults made up the other 57% (although, if we counted children as those up to 18 years of age, the balance would shift). The elderly, those 70 years and up, made up only 2.8% of our patients.