Doctor seeks more help for Guatemalan hospital

Mobley learned about the Lake Atitlán region from Freddie Flores, a friend who traveled to Guatemala to buy woven, handmade fabric for his sports clothing line.

“He always talked about this incredible high-altitude lake surrounded by volcanoes and Mayan villages, living like they had for thousands of years,” Mobley said. “He said I had to see it, and I did. It’s not a long trip – just a hop, skip and an afternoon’s flight through Dallas.”

Ultimately, the plight of the region’s people, who are T’zutjil Maya, prompted Mobley to help, particularly in terms of their medical needs. While isolation had protected much of the area’s culture, Guatemalan civil war wreaked havoc on its people.

After the civil war ended, Mobley traveled to Santiago Atitlán, a village that was the site of a massacre by government troops just a few yards from the hospital. Ultimately, medical services had been driven from the area by the brutal fighting.

“The area had among the highest maternal mortality rates in the hemisphere,” Mobley said.

According to David Embree, who leads groups to the Lake Atitlán area on behalf of Christian Campus House in Springfield, opening the Hospitalito Atitlán was not Mobley’s first idea.

“His original vision was perhaps he could get a houseboat and make stops around the lake,” said Embree. (Editor’s note: Embree is the husband of SBJ list researcher Joyce Embree.)

“Somewhere along the way, this hospital was mentioned to him and he thought he could do something with that,” he added.

Local health care professionals and businesspeople stepped up to the plate to make the revamped hospital a reality, but a devastating mudslide in 2005 essentially put the hospital back at Square 1.

“Blood, sweat and tears from Springfield were poured into this facility, and it was destroyed,” Mobley said.

“My wife and I were scheduled to go down and work on some buildings we were going to turn into wards,” Embree said. “Instead of going down to figure out the wards, we went down to figure out what to do with the hospital.”

Helping hands

Hospital operations have moved to an interim site, and on a student trip led by Embree later this month, work will begin on the new location.

Plans for new construction are much more robust, and the new site is located in an area not vulnerable to the threat of mudslides, Mobley said.

“We’ve got 25 students and a dozen friends of mine from around the country heading down there with shovels and everything else,” Mobley said.

Jeff Hertell, general manager for Kolar Business Machines in Springfield, said Mobley’s vision for Hospitalito Atitlán has inspired many businesspeople, Hertell included.

Hertell, who learned of the region’s needs from Jim Quesenberry, owner of Corporate Business Systems, leads work groups to the region through the HOLA Sertoma Club, which spends several hours a week on fundraising activities specifically for the hospital.

Hertell will next lead a trip to Guatemala on March 16. Another work trip, under the direction of group leader James Owen, will leave the Ozarks March 10.

Those group trips, Mobley said, are very productive for the hospital project.

“We (can) literally get six months of work done in one week,” Mobley said. “The same thing with the Sertoma groups that go down there regularly now. I was able to ignite the spark of excitement and share the joy of giving to the disadvantaged. It’s to the point that not only do they go back, they keep bringing other groups of people.”

Mobley promotes the project every chance he gets, including through his Web site, www.tropicalmedicine101.com. The site features post-mudslide pictures of the first hospital and an early video he produced describing the project, the place and the people that make up the region. Another local group, Pueblo a Pueblo, founded by Ken Wood, also raises funds for the hospital at www.puebloapueblo.org.

Mobley’s efforts to educate the Springfield community about Guatemala’s health care needs seem to have paid off beyond the work trips.

“Now I really understand the needs of a developing country in regards to health care,” Hertell said. “I had always understood a developing country’s economic requirements as a businessman. I never thought about health care requirements until I saw an abject lack of health care altogether.”

An Opportunity to Help

Anyone who would like to learn more about joining Springfield businessman Jeff Hertell on a March 16 work trip to Guatemala can reach him at (800) 264-6752. [[In-content Ad]]