| | |  Vallarta Living | August 2008 
Out and About in Puerto Vallarta
 Twila Crawford - PVNN
| | This week, Twila tells us about the International Friendship Club's Cleft Palate program, and how you can help them improve the lives of Banderas Bay area children affected by facial birth defects while you're Out and About in Puerto Vallarta. | | |
A moving time was joining Susan Davalos, a nurse and community worker, for the Cleft Palate Program, sponsored by the International Friendship Club, which took place from August 6th-8th, 2008 at the Puerto Vallarta Regional Hospital.
A crafts table is set up for families to create items while a brother or sister waits to see a doctor in a cleft palate consultation. Surgeries, when applicable, are scheduled the next day at Regional Hospital.
Doctors from Guadalajara conduct these consultations and surgeries every three months. The hospital is fairly new. Someone who had a relative there for many days, was impressed with the facility, doctors and care.
IFC Volunteers are always needed. For more information, call (322) 222-5466.
Susan Davalos helps in many ways at Regional Hospital as well as in communities around Puerto Vallarta. At the hospital, we visited mothers of newborns and handed out layettes. An estimated 600 babies per month are born at the Regional Hospital.
HealthCare Resources' Pamela Thompson provides the following background:
The Regional Hospital, east of El Pitillal, is for the indigent and for those who have no insurance or source of income. Patients must pay for all medications and diagnostic procedures.
It is best if patients can have friends or family members stay with them 24 hours. "Care is very good. With fabulous physicians."
Beds are limited, with long waits, in this government-funded hospital. No private rooms are available. No long-term care is available.
Extras are minimal such as soaps and shampoos. These items always are needed and are appreciated. For donations and further information, email pmt15(at)hotmail.com.
A beautifully decorated altar in the chapel area and a flower garden add to cheering patients and visitors.
Susan Davalos, who is devoted to community programs here, is in California for a period of time, as usual, to earn money as a nurse so she can volunteer here in the Puerto Vallarta area the rest of the time. Her email is pedroysusan(at)hotmail.com.
By enlisting volunteer doctors from Guadalajara, the International Friendship Club has been offering free corrective plastic surgery and follow-up care to indigent children in the Banderas Bay area who are affected by facial birth defects 4 times a year for almost 20 years. For more information, or to learn how you can help, please call (322) 299-5601 or 299-5603.
 An award-winning journalist, Twila Crawford lives in Puerto Vallarta, where, in addition to contributing articles to BanderasNews, the Vallarta Tribune and other local publications, she writes Out and About in Puerto Vallarta, an informative column that offers inside information about who, what, why, where and when it's happening around Banderas Bay.
Click HERE to read more articles by Twila Crawford. |
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