She has her bags packed and is ready for adventure.
9&10 News’ own Courtney Hunter is committed to Guatemala as she gets ready to embark on a journey with a local medical mission trip early Saturday morning.
In October 9&10 News Michelle Dunaway went on a similar trip. She sits down with some of the doctors going again to reminisce and learn about the differences for this trip.
Dr. John Cox, team leader, says they are “excited” and prepping to go.
“We have a new team getting ready to go, so we’re right in the process of getting supplies so that doctors have what they’re going to need–the medicines, everything we’re going to need for that trip,” he says. “It’s a bigger group, so exciting because being a bigger group we can do more, see more patients during our clinic.”
Orthopedic Dr. Scott Grosclose will also be going for the third time, and says he now feels like he knows what to expect.
“The first time I did primary care kind of activities—I don’t really do that for a living—so the second time I really focused on orthopedics, and there’s so many needs with these patients,” he says. “They are just like us, they have arthritis, shoulder pain, back pain. So to just being able to focus down and take care of those conditions it’s a big deal. It’s a day-to-day problem for them like we experience here.”
This new group that is going is not only larger, but from more places.
“It’s interesting,” Cox says. “A larger group, six provider teams who are supporting staff, nurses, there’s a pharmacist coming from Manistee, from the Munson system. And then there’s also a couple nurses coming from grayling and then most of the rest of this team is coming from the area of Traverse City.”
Cox says the greater numbers are due to the word being spread about their mission.
“It’s kind of exciting that as word spreads more people are stepping forward wanting to get involved with this project,” he says.
Grosclose says he hopes something the Northern Michigan community can get something from watching Courtney Hunter, the doctors, staff and others experience this.
“I hope the folks in our community understand healthcare is really a privilege,” he says. “We have such great healthcare in America and they go without healthcare. They don’t have any. Some of these folks haven’t seen a doctor in a decade or more, and it’s just amazing to think about how good we have it here. And to be able to bring just a little bit of our expertise down there to Guatemala, frankly it’s a privilege. It’s a great thing to do.”
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