Villa Hidalgo, Sonora, Feb 2010
Punta Abreojos, BCS, Nov 2009
San Ignacio, Baja California Sur, Sept 2009
Bahía Tortugas, Baja California Sur, May 2009
Granados, Sonora, April 2009
San Ignacio, Baja California Sur, March 2009
by Dr. Audrey D’Andrea, MD, and the team
Oh my God, what a great trip! Everything went
smoothly and was really fun. We were the first LMV doctors
to use the newly constructed and beautiful three-story
Deborah Wayne Memorial Clinic in San Ignacio. It is a
lovely and loving tribute to her life and her death. It touched
my heart deeply to be using the facility built in memory of
her. (I knew the pilot, Dr. Marvin Weinreb, MD and the
pediatrician, Dr. Edith Lowenstein, MD, who were on that
fateful flight with her.)
Two planes went on this trip: pilot Bob Horvath
brought co-pilot Bob Lamkin, ER doctor Dr. Judy Whitehall,
MD, Gyn Dr. Ed Kneler, MD and family medicine Dr.
Audrey D’Andrea, MD. Pilot Pedro Rump brought translator
extraordinaire (and our reservations manager) Heber Alfaro,
ENT Dr. Jon Kahn, MD and RN Barbara Williams.
The three doctors each had their own exam room
with writing table, exam table, chairs, sinks with running
water, and privacy. The waiting room was indoors, spacious
and well triaged by nurse Barbara and doctor Judy. The local
Deborah Wayne Foundation members Manuel, Maria de los
Angeles, Maria Josefa and Fannie made sure we were picked
up from the airport, driven where we needed to go, brought
lunches to the clinic for us each day, fixed the broken BP
cuff, and did it all with good humor and friendliness. The
clinics ran more smoothly than any other LMV clinic I’ve
ever done. And Heber’s efforts were fantastic, before and
during the trip!
We worked Friday from 8:30 am –5:45 pm and again
Saturday 8:30 am – 12:30 pm. We saw a total of 49
Medicine patients, 50 ENT patients and 22 Gyn patients. The
patients were really appreciative. One of the patients
returned after her appointment with a huge bag of treeripened
oranges from her yard to say thank you. All the
LMV volunteers and Deborah Wayne Foundation members
shared them at lunch and dinner.
The town of San Ignacio is beautiful. It has the bestpreserved
Mission in Baja California. The mission was built
in 1770 out of volcanic rock and they still have mass at 6:30
am seven days a week. It sits on a quaint central plaza. It
was pleasantly warm in the daytime and cool enough to
require long pants and light jacket in the evenings.
On Saturday we flew 15 minutes to Laguna San
Ignacio on the Pacific side of Baja for our R&R. We took
two pangas (small boats with outboard motors) on a guided
tour of the protected grey whale birthing lagoon early Sunday
morning. The males had mostly already left for Alaska, but
the mothers and calves hang out at the protected warm lagoon
for three months before heading north to Alaska to feed. The
calves were curious about us and quite playful; they swam
right up to our boat and allowed themselves to be petted.
They also did “spy hops” and spins near our boats, just to
show off. They were very gentle and did not bump our boat
at all, but did look directly into my eyes while being petted.
It was magical!
The Deborah Wayne Memorial Clinic has space for
the LMV crew to sleep in the clinic. They have upstairs
bedrooms with beds and a kitchen too. I recommend that we
send another crew down ASAP and keep the facility in use
for clinics as much as possible.
San Carlos, Sonora, February 2009
