Dr. Soledad’s Yanhuitlan Clinic is now open!

Founders of A Promise of Health/Una Promesa de Salud

Monday, May 16, Dr. Soledad opened the door to Yanhuitlan’s new clinic and she saw her very first patients!  Yes, after all these months starting in February 2021, work on the clinic is now finished!

Dr. Soledad and her 3 children have moved into their new home! Medicine and medical supplies have been properly put into the medical storeroom. Dr. Soledad’s desk, medicine and file cabinets, exam bed and chairs for patients are all arranged in her office. Monday through Friday each week, the waiting room door stands open for those in need of medical care!

It has been a long 16 months from when our first builder, Armando, built a storage shed and began to assemble materials, until now. You, our ever faithful APOH donors, have seen the construction every step of the way from excavating the foundation to finishing touches of tile floors, windows and doors. Now, you can see the opening of the clinic and the beginning of a new chapter, not of anticipation, but one of fulfillment!

The weekend before the clinic’s opening, Dr. Soledad with her children drove through all the surrounding pueblos with a rented loudspeaker and amplified mike announcing the clinic’s opening, inviting those in need of medical care.

Dr. Soledad wrote this on the eve of the clinic’s opening:

“I want to tell all of APOH’s donors how very excited we are about the opening of the clinic. It is a wonderful and new experience!” “It is the beginning of a new life for my children and me. It is a new beginning for all the people of Yanhuitlan’s communities! Words cannot express my thanks to all who have made this dream come true. I OWE IT ALL TO YOU, THE APOH DONORS!”

So, who came this first week? A busy first week as Soledad’s APOH clinic opens its doors! Her first day brought her 8 patients. It was a combination of young and old. Her older patients suffered from diabetes and arthritis. The children, ages 4 to 9, had a virus with either a cold or flu like symptoms. Here is what Dr. Soledad wrote:

“My first patient was a 49- year-old woman who was very swollen all over her body and her complexion was yellow.  She has a liver ailment that I treated. She asked me also for help for her 80-year-old mother-in-law who is bedridden. Since she doesn’t walk, I prescribed medicine from what the woman told me. Because she had no money to pay for it, I sent it home with her at no cost.”

“Next came a young 23-year-old mother who came for a consultation along with her 3-year-old daughter that I also attended. The girl was suffering from a flu like infection, that I learned has infected many children.”“I ask all my patients to wear a mask as I do.”

By the next day, word must have gotten around town. On Tuesday, Dr. Soledad saw many more patients, mostly children. “My first patients this morning were a mother and her 2 children. They all had what appears to be the flu. The mother and children all had a deep cough. I treated all three.”

“At the end of the day, at 6 p.m. an entire family asked for help. The 2 girls and father all had the same flu like symptoms which I had treated during the day. Finally, at 7 p.m. I was done. It was a very long and tiring day and I was exhausted.”

That was how Dr. Soledad’s first week went, with many surprises at the end of each day. A busy week!

Here are some excerpts from Soledad’s weekly report:

“On Thursday, I treated 2 girls, Mariel who is 5 years old and Aylin, who is 6 years old. Both girls had the same severe flu like symptoms. Their mother said they had caught it from their cousins. The youngest girl, Mariel, had a temperature of 38.5 C. (101 F). She had a runny nose, was sneezing and was prostrated by fever.

She was very dehydrated and thirsty so I offered her a glass of water in addition to the homeopathic remedy. Aylin’s flu symptoms were less but she had developed a night time cough and fever. She too had a very runny nose.”

“On Friday at 7 p.m. a mother and grandmother carried to my office the mother’s son. He is a 5-year-old boy named Adonai. They are a very, very poor family and had no other place to go for help. Adonai was in bad shape. He had trouble breathing and was also dehydrated. Even though it wasn’t during work hours I took care of him. The mother told me that Adonai had begun to have a fever 2 days ago. Then came intense abdominal pains with diarrhea and vomiting. She told me he sweat intensely.”

“Adonai was in very bad shape and even though it wasn’t during work hours I took care of him. Fortunately, I have the exam bed where I had him under observation for 3 hours, until he responded to my medication that I administered every 30 minutes and until he was breathing much better.  They left around 10 p.m. This morning I heard from the family who said he was much better. The remedy had healed him.”

“Also noteworthy was an older patient I treated with uncontrolled diabetes mellitus with complications (diabetic neuropathy and diabetic retinopathy). Sadly, many older patients suffer from this disease because of bad diet!”

During her first week Dr. Soledad treated a total of 27 patients!

As she points out, of course all were first-time patients, which require more time in getting their medical history besides diagnosing and treating their ailments.

All this made for an exhausting but very successful time for Dr. Soledad’s first week in the new clinic.  BUT ALL IN ALL, WHAT A GREAT WEEK!

AT LONG LAST, YANHUITLAN HAS A DOCTOR AND CLINIC TO SERVE THESE MIXTEC COMMUNITIES IN OAXACA MEXICO!

Congratulations APOH you built a Clinic to serve people for years to come!

Construction of Yanhuitlan’s clinic may be over, but supporting Dr. Soledad’s work in this poorest of regions in Oaxaca, Mexico, has just begun. Her meager earnings from what some villagers can pay will not support Dr. Soledad and her work and it will certainly not buy needed medical supplies and homeopathic medicine. All of our support will be needed to make that happen!

So please, we ask all of you wonderful people, to please continue to support the incredible work by this one doctor in a town that has not had a doctor for decades. It is a historic gift to help those in need of medical care who virtually have had none. Together we have built a clinic that can serve the people for generations to come!

May God bless you all and A Promise of Health! Look for another update soon!

Abrazos galore, Bill and Barb Grannell