Clinics

Clinic Trip Reports

Joel — October 09, 2011 (41 .20111007 ) Steve Shaffer took Joe Zachwieja, Bruce Hultgren, and Gwen Douglass; Mark Rudolph carried Mike Gaisford, Ryan Thompson, and Jared Thompson; Steve Gorman took Debbie Marino, Cindy Ashmead, and Mariana Locke; I flew Bob Haining, Pam Polk, Emily Klein, and Jocelyn Mansfield. Liz Sivesind was scheduled to fly with Steve Shaffer but unable to go this month. The trip down was very smooth and quick; we had tailwinds of 24 to 27 knots at 9,500'. The entry at Ensenada was time consuming, with customs and immigration officials earning their pay but causing us a delay that was unnecessary. It seems they have something new each time we land there. The patient count was lower than we might have expected; perhaps because we didn't have dentists this month. The providers saw 66 patients, one of whom had been attacked by a pit bull and suffered extreme wounds to his face and other parts of his body. His face was completely disfigured. His nose was almost entirely gone. The photos I took of him while Dr. Haining was examining him are almost beyond description. Our two UCD med students, Jocelyn Mansfield and Emily Klein, worked with Dr. Thompson and Mariana Locke, FNP. They are both in their fourth year as students. It was a pleasure to have them with us, and a good opportunity for them. Pilot Mark Rudolph was on his first flight to the clinic. It was great to have him along. He's a good pilot and a real gentleman, one who can give as well as he takes of the humor we share. We're looking forward to having him with us again soon. We went to Jardines for dinner Friday night and to Cielito Lindo on Saturday evening. The food and restaurant there were much improved since we were there last. Several of us went to see Martha Rodriguez at her new home high on the bluff overlooking the valley. The place is a mansion; quite a contrast to the other homes we've seen there. She greeted us warmly and showed us through her home. It was impressive. The flight north was uneventful with some headwinds. We all arrived home safely.
Jocelyn Mansfield — October 11, 2011 (42 .20111007 ) Here is a bit about my first trip: I was amazed by the connection that the Sams had made with the local community. The local people clearly value the clinic and workers very highly, and the volunteers on my trip seemed to find genuine fulfilment in providing care. I was amazed to hear the stories about interesting cases from over the years, and how Sams have overcome cultural and language boundaries, and even crossed borders with patients to find optimal care. They are able to do so much with such limited resources. In addition to the fulfilling and medically fascinating experience at the clinic, I was excited to embark on my first trip to Mexico, my first flight on a private plane (and landing on a dirt runway), and my first lesson in global health. Waking up to the sound of waves crashing in a beautiful location is not bad either!
Robert Golomb — August 21, 2011 (40 .20110812 ) I am a 53-year-old emergency room doctor. I went to San Quintin with the Flying Sam’s from 8/12 to 8/14/2011. This was my first ever experience doing volunteer work as a physician. The trip down and back was very smooth. I was very impressed with the skills and professionalism of the pilot, Steve Shaffer. I have never landed on a dirt airstrip before. It was smoother than many landings I have experienced in larger planes. On the approach I could see the greenhouses where vegetables are grown, but could not truly appreciate the scale until on the ground. The manual labor required to assemble the structures, then grow and harvest the tomatoes and cucumbers is arduous and backbreaking. All of this done by the patients that I saw the next day. Next time I am in Safeway, I will have more gratitude for the fresh produce. The clinic was a real eye-opener. Most of the patients I saw were not ill. They seemed very pleased to be examined by me and were grateful when I told them all was well. Also liked the vitamins and ibuprofen! In Berkeley, where I practice, the expectation (even for very minor pain) is more on the order of Vicodin. I was introduced to 2 young children with severe congenital heart defects. I do not think that in my career I have ever heard such significant murmurs. In America, both would have had corrective surgery at an early age. I saw a 4-year-old girl with a severe flexion contracture of the fingers of her left hand. This was a result of a burn from 2 years ago! In America, even if uninsured, this girl would have had corrective surgery to repair this. I did not know what to say or do. Fortunately, “Dr. Bob” had a connection with the Shriner’s, and hopefully they can take care of her. It was a pleasure and privilege to work with all of the volunteers associated with the Flying Sam’s. A true labor of love! I plan to go back to San Quintin, and hope to have the opportunity to do even more extensive medical volunteer work in the future. Robert Golomb MD
Andrew Rong — August 22, 2011 (39 .20110812 ) The clinic experience was unforgettable. From the time I stepped into the 4 seater when we took off from Sacramento to when we touched Down in Los Pinos, I was unsure what to expect. The next day in clinic however, proved to be exhilarating. I was able to listen to aortic stenosis, perform physical exams on people with unique pathologies, and most importantly, help the people of the region with their medial ailments. The people who chose to fly down with me were also great company and passionate about clinic. It was an unforgettable experience and I hope that everyone who is interested in international aid try it out! Best, Andrew Rong
Alex Golomb — August 14, 2011 (38 .20110812 ) My Flying Samaritans Experience — My name is Alex Golomb and I am a senior Chico State university. I am majoring in environmental health and have enjoyed every year so far at Chico State. I have taken a strong interest in joining the Peace Corps after I graduate. This was one of the main reasons why I chose to work with the Flying Samaritans this past weekend. I know that I only volunteered for one day and the Peace Corps requires a two year commitment but I felt that this experience would be a taste of what the Peace Corps might be like. When we landed at the clinic I was very eager to see what it looked like and was happy to set up the equipment for the busy day ahead of us. It was obvious that supplies were limited and the equipment was somewhat antique but that did not matter when came to helping our patients. The language barrier was one of the toughest aspects of this trip. I know a little bit of Spanish from high school but I could say that I spoke little to no Spanish to the patients. However, every patient was more than happy to wait for one of the translators to assist me. This trip has motivated me to learn fluent Spanish, which I hope to achieve soon. The most memorable and rewarding part of the trip was when I was able to help a very young girl who was very scared and traumatized by the clinic visit. The look in her eyes reminded me how terrified I was of the doctor when I was a little boy. I was able to get this girl to stop crying and start laughing by making a few faces and funny noises. I could tell that the mother appreciated what I did because it helped her relax as well. Overall, I had a great time with the Flying Samaritans and gained a new appreciation for everything that I have access so easily, especially health care.
Sr Bilito — August 14, 2011 (37 .20110812 ) Steve Shaffer flew Joe Zachwieja, Bob Haining, Robert Golomb & his son, Alex. Steve Gorman flew Phil Summers, Andrew Rong & and Katherine Crabtree. Joel flew Pam Polk, Suzanne Smith, Frank Marquez & me. Nice flight down, especially for the first-time fliers.. Ensenada charged us $25 for visas, good for 180 days. Aviation gas was $5.97 per gallon ($5.65 per gallon at Calexico). We arrived in San Quintin to a welcoming committee of a bazillion flies (usual for August). Friday night, we drove to the Old Mill for a good dinner, but there was a lot of waiting for the dinners to be served. We agreed that it wasn't worth the extra driving to get there. Saturday, Joel & Frank delivered scholarships to 20 primary students ($150 each) and $250 each to five secondary students. Frank & Patti Rabe did an outstanding job formulating a spread sheet which is quite detailed and will be used next year. Patti did not arrive until 1 p.m. and decided to just return home without helping us. Claudia's daughter (also named Claudia ) did a great job filling out the patient entry forms, so we paid her $10. Unfortunately, Alma Rendon, our patient with rheumatoid arthritis, did not show up, so we couldn't determine her status. Last month, her hemoglobin was only 6.6, so Bob Haining started her on iron tablets to treat her anemia; we were eager to see how she was responding, so it was very disappointing when she didn't show up. Flor was there, unchanged in height and weight, but still very active. Juan Carlos also appeared and together with Flor, we presented two, very unusual, congenital heart patients to our three medical students and Dr. Robert Golomb (an ER physician). Our clinic was very busy with people showing up to collect scholarships followed by a visit for medical treatment. The three med students were very eager to see patients & presented them to our medics for consultation. Dr. Golomb was able to teach us how to utilize the ultrasound, so great excitement there. Pam Polk was kept busy finding things for us & Suzanne Smith was kept busy taking vital signs. Alex busied himself doing odd jobs like installing a fly catcher with rank-smelling bait which really attracted the flies. We closed clinic at 4 p.m., then sat around the hotel veranda imbibing. Saturday night, most of us went to Jardines, where Bob Haining paid for all our dinners. The students went downtown for street tacos. We left the hotel at 8 a.m. this morning & arrived in Calexico where it was over 90° a little after 9 a.m. We then flew home safely, arriving in Sacramento around 2:30 p.m.
Valerie Yuan — July 14, 2011 (34 .20110708 ) From flying in 5-seater plane for the first time to exploring the streets of San Quintin and eating "street" tacos, my trip with Flying Samaritans has been one of the most exciting volunteer trips I have ever been on. I had such a great time working with doctors, nurses, dentists, and volunteers who have dedicated so much of their time to the clinic in San Quintin. Seeing how much they cared for the people of Mexico was encouraging for me as I continue in my studies and learn how to be an empathetic doctor. I was able to apply much of what I learned in my first year of medical school and was able to see diagnoses that I wouldn't normally encounter in the United States. I definitely hope to go on another Flying Samaritans trip soon!
SR Bilito — July 13, 2011 (36 .20110708 ) Good report. Unfortunately the CD of Juan Carlos’ study is in a format requiring techie maneuvers ( downloading VOR’s from Google) then extra changes. Sebastian then burned a disc which I will take to Sacramento with me but will still require a techie’s guidance. Dr Rubio sent an interpretation of all of the defects, but it is in Spanish. I’ve forwarded it to Haining but he is not available at this time, so my friend who taught Spanish interpreted some of the dxs (unfortunately he is not familiar with medical terminology). Juan has a subaortic membrane which impedes outflow and in essence causes severe aortic stenosis. The valve is already calcified and he has significant left ventricular hypertrophy which could lead to irreversible cardiac failure. Will keep you informed as I seek help for Juan Carlos.
Pamela Fallo — July 12, 2011 (35 .20110708 ) Steve Gorman flew Justin Sherrill, Debbie Marino, Joe Zachwieja; Steve Shaffer flew Bob Haining, Pam Polk, Bruce Hultgren, Matthew Hager. They stopped for lunch at Catalina Island on the way. Joel Prosser flew Mark Abel, Paige Jeffs, Valerie Yuan, Pam Fallo. All 3 checked in at Ensenada with varying results. The pilots were required to visit every desk they had, paying varoius fees along the way. We got hit for the $26/person visa fee, and some other pilot fee...then the agent bluntly required a mordida. Pam realized after she got there that she inadvertantly packed an expired passport. The agent kept repeating "Don't worry..I'll take care of you", which was probably another veiled request for money. We arrived at SQ to find out the generator wire on Joel's plane had come loose. Samuel instantly found him a mechanic and it was fixed in no time. The group split up for Fri. dinner. Some stayed at the hotel restaurant, others went for street tacos and a few to Jardines. Saturday clinic served 90 medical patients, 36 dental patients, 40 optometry patients and 16 glasses were dispensed. Steve Gorman flew a 10 year old patient, Juan, his mom, and Alfredo to Ensenada for a cardiac workup which showed a serious problem needing surgery. They provided the echo pictures, a written report and CD which Bill McDavid will shop around California in an attempt to get care for him. Samuel drove Alma, a rheumatoid patient to town for blood tests. She was quite anemic from her arthritis medicines. Her hemoglobin had been 9.2; was 6.9 on Saturday, which didn't look good. But it turned out she was 6.7 on 6/15 , so is currently stable. She felt much better, was gaining some motion of the jaw, and had even been able to eat some. After a long day the group again split up for dinner. Justin , Matt and others decided to try something completely different. They found a street stand serving some kind of brains, pork stomach and intestines, which they described as "actually really good". Those of us that are more sane went to Jardines. Everyone wished Justin well as he goes off to UCLA. Samuel was trained by him to assist in the dental clinic. We discussed the possibility of dropping in to Santa Monica airport from time to time to pick up Justin. He hopes to drive down in September with Hannah and a friend. Steve Gorman's plane had reservations to stop for lunch at Harris Ranch on the way home.
Tim Itoi — June 15, 2011 (28 .20110610 ) I had a blast on my first trip down to San Quintin with the Flying Samaritans. The best way I can summarize the experience is that it is “fun with purpose” which, in my mind, is the most enjoyable kind. Joel Prosser invited me along as a new pilot to fly right seat in his Cessna 205. It was great for me to learn the ropes navigating through the busy airspace of the LA basin, clearing customs into Mexico at Mexicali (while mostly avoiding international incident), and finding the airstrip in San Quintin. More importantly, Joel got me up to speed on where to find the best fish tacos and pastries in town too. Experiencing the clinic first hand really made an impact on me. The people who rely on this clinic clearly are in need and it is inspiring to see the amount of dedication and selflessness the medical providers are able to give to them. The trip home was the perfect ending to a great weekend. Once we climbed past the marine layer fog on the coast the skies cleared up as we continued over the peninsular range to Calexico International Airport to re-enter the US. Here we had our passports checked and said our goodbyes with Mike and crew in his Bonanza. After departing Calexico it was smooth air and clear skies the rest of the 3.5 hour trip home to Sacramento Executive Airport in Joel’s capable plane carrying us aloft at 10,500’ and cruising at 140 kts. All this to say, “I’m hooked and am looking forward to the next one.”
Jake Gire — June 17, 2011 (33 .20110610 ) I had a great time traveling to Baja with the flying samaritans! Working in clinic gave me a chance to continue improving my spanish, work on my interview skills, and was a rewarding way to spend my Saturday. Evenings were filled with amazing food from the local restaurants and friendly people to talk and have a few cervezas with.
Paige Jeffs — March 13, 2011 (27 .20110311 ) Our dental clinic was well staffed this trip. Mark Abel is a great asset at the clinic. During the last clinic, a fairly young patient presented himself missing several front teeth. Since we don't have a lab, Mark was generous enough to take an impression and send it to his lab for processing. He delivered the dental prosthesis on Saturday to a very grateful patient. We had great help in the clinic with Justin and Dana serving as chairside assistants, and Mike Worth helping out with sterilization. Our chemiclave sterilizer was acting up a bit and may be on its last leg. Al said he will guide us in obtaining a replacement. Dr. McDavid helped Mark with a patient who needed to be sedated. We saw 39 patients between us. 95% of our patients needed extractions, with one of them being a surgical extraction. The X-ray unit is a tremendous asset, as before it was acquired, we were doing a lot of guesswork. We can now diagnose with 100% certainty. (Thanks Al Rabe.) We met a group of Tijuana dental students at the hotel. As we became acquainted with them, we invited them to visit our dental clinic Friday. They were impressed with our clinic, and we were impressed with them. With Al Rabe's approbation, we gave them some needles, toothbrushes, toothpaste, anesthetic, and dental prevention pamphlets. They were thrilled. One of the dental students (a senior) is planning on taking the dental board examination in California and it is his desire to practice there. We exchanged contact information and we plan to stay in close touch with him, and help him as much as we can in realizing this dream.
Laurie Pittman — March 28, 2011 (32 .20110311 ) This was my first trip volunteering with Flying Samaritans, and our trip to the San Quintin Clinic was amazing! I met fellow volunteers, Fred Martinez and Dr. Bill McDavid, on Friday at the Placerville Airport and I instantly felt welcome. As we took off over the green foothills with great visibility, a song played on the radio that immediately put words to my experience "... searching for a purpose to this life you've come to know, open your eyes to see through the wall of fear ...show me something glorious, show me something glorious...." Dr. Ryan Thompson joined us after we landed at the Calaveras airport. Our pilot, Mike Worth, was fantastic, and as one who has flown professionally, I can not over emphasize how safe I felt flying with him. My favorite meal was our casual dinner at Street Tacos and the soft served ice cream cones enjoyed on the sidewalk of San Quintin. On Saturday morning, I met hard-working people from medical, dental, optical, Rotarian and interpreter backgrounds who converged at the clinic to provide necessary services to enhance the health of the residents of this Mexican coastal community. The work we did was very rewarding as the citizens of San Quintin have limited health care options. For example, a young pregnant woman was placed on antibiotics for a urinary tract infection which left untreated could have resulted in complications for the mother and baby. As an RN and a parent with young children I am thrilled to have a flexible volunteer experience like this available and look forward to more trips with Flying Samaritans.
Sr. Bilito — March 13, 2011 (29 .20110310 ) Mike Worth flew his maiden voyage to clinic piloting his beautiful A36. His passengers were Fred Martinez, Ryan Thompson, Laurie Pittman & me. Steve Gorman flew Gayle Beasley, Bruce Hultgren & Mark Abel. Joel Prosser flew his son, John, Justin Sherrill, Paige Jeffs & Joe Zachwieja. Al & Patti Rabe drove down as did Lena Trinh & and Dana Duey. The Rotarians of North Sacto. drove in Louie’s motorhome which carried his wife, Becky, Carroll Dudley, et al. The cabinets which they installed are magnificent, with enough room for all of the containers. Carroll hired Guillermo to spray another coat of lacquer in the near future. We were visited by a contingent of dental students whom Paige took on a personal tour. Saturday morning, a group from the medical school in Tijuana visited us; we hope to meet again in October. The highlight for them was meeting Flor and listening to her heart; Flor, of course, enjoyed all of the attention. Our illustrious optometry department – Bruce Hultgren, Steve Gorman & Fred Martinez – did vision tests and ordered 21 pairs of glasses. Joe examined one of the medical students and gave her instructions on how to order her glasses. The dental clinic was going full bore with Dana and Justin assisting, and Mike Worth and John sterilizing the instruments. Paige will file a separate report. The medics saw 80 patients with Ryan leading the charge. Patti’s 18-month-old boy had an abdominal abscess which he incised and inserted a drain into. Ryan also saw an eight-month-old baby who only weighed 11 lbs. and appeared malnourished; the mother said the baby had chronic diarrhea. The mother apparently suffered a very difficult pregnancy. Ryan emphasized that an intensive workup is necessary and hopefully, her husband is employed and, therefore, the baby is eligible for social security. He asked the mother to return next month for Bob Haining to examine. Laurie Pittman & Gayle Beasley were kept busy doing patient vital signs, with Becky assisting on the surgery on Patti’s infant. The Tucson group sent a pilot and three helpers to deliver to us four boxes of meds collected from a pharmacy which had closed. These meds included analgesics, antibiotics and some asthma meds. Many thanks go to them! It is with great pleasure to announce that the young man whom we have nurtured along by supporting him in his training to become a pilot, advising him on how to assist in providing dental care and not the least of which, teaching him how to drive a car with a standard transmission, has been admitted into the class of 2015 at UCLA . . . Justin Sherrill. Nice going, dude! We fought head winds of 20 mph, but arrived home safely this afternoon.
Pam Polk — February 13, 2011 (30 .20110211 ) Steve Gorman flew Cindy Ashmead, Fred Martinez, and Pam Polk to San Quintin on Thursday and stayed at our usual hotel for the evening. Steve Shaffer flew Bruce Hultgren, Phil Summers, Erin Osiecki, and Justin Sherrill to San Felipe, cleared customs and spent the night at a local hotel. We met the next morning at Laguana San Ignacio for whale watching. The weather was clear and brisk. We saw whales breaching, flipping their flukes, and relaxing in the beautiful bay. After the boat ride, we returned for a fresh fish lunch at the launch site. Steve Gorman's group flew to Loreto for fuel and returned to San Quintin later that afternoon. Steve Shaffer flew his plane directly to San Quintin and had street tacos that night. Due to Bill McDavid's plane problems, he and his group were unable to fly to clinic. This left us without a doctor. The Tucson group graciously provided us with Chuck Schroll, MD. With Chuck and our two medical students, Phil and Erin, we had physician coverage. Justin, Pam, and Cindy checked vitals and blood sugars, and coordinated the clinic flow for 70 patients. Bruce and Steve Gorman did about 30 eye exams. Steve Shaffer and Justin re-installed wooden covers for the windows on the two main clinic doors. Steve wanted to remind everyone to turn the screws "finger tight" to prevent stripping them again. Flor and her mom, along with many of our regular patients, had exams and medication renewals. We also saw a 24 year old woman in a wheel chair with a thoracic spine injury who had a subsequent paralysis. Pam will send Bob pictures and a description of the orthotics that were recommended by a local clinic. Judy Austin from the Tucson chapter would like to donate medications that were given to their chapter after a pharmacy closure. Pam will get the list of medications and send to Debbie and Bill for review. We returned to the hotel for a fun evening of pool, dancing, margaritas, and dinner.
Sr. Bilito — January 09, 2011 (31 .20110107 ) Three planes went to clinic: Mike Gaisford flew Debbie Marino & Justin Sherrill, I flew Fred Martinez, Paul & Alexander Kulikov, and Steve Gorman flew Paige Jeffs, Mark Abel & a 1st-year U.C. Davis medical student, Sara Hashley. Gaisford and I arrived at Ensenada around 2 P.M. with broken clouds, but an easy landing. The runway in San Quintin had been smoothed out nicely after the rains. There were 5-10 knot tailwinds all the way down. The Immigration Officer insisted that everyone have a visa, but there was no charge. Gorman landed at Tijuana where multiple charges were leveled; each passenger paid $27 for a visa. Steve was also required to buy one and also had to pay an additional charge of $5 for paying in U.S. dollars. In addition he paid a landing fee and had to taxi to the fuel truck for fuel. It was cold and only four of us went for street tacos Friday evening; everyone else went to Jardine’s for indoor comfort. There were only 46 medical patients, but it was a good day because it gave Sara plenty of time to practice her Spanish and evaluate her patients. I felt she did an excellent job questioning her patients and only occasionally needed help in translation. Justin is ready to take his check ride for a private pilot exam, but the fog is delaying it. He didn’t know how to drive a car with manual transmission, so he took a few lessons and is now able to do it. We were discussing how there aren’t many stick shifts anymore and wondered how many young people haven’t mastered it. The Kulikov brothers taught a group of children and adults how to brush their teeth, and they promised to forward photographs. The eye guys, Fred & Steve, examined 22 patients, placed four new orders, gave out six reading glasses and found two patients needing care for their cataracts. Paige, Mark & Justin treated over 30 dental patients and Paige will provide a report. As we were preparing to leave San Quintin this morning, one from the Arizona group requested a splint and crutches for one of their members who injured an ankle. Nurse Rachet (aka Debbie) provided them with the necessary equipment. Bill Hunt: Please let us know how she is doing. We flew home with 10-30 knot headwinds and the valley was fairly solid with fog until we reached Sacramento. Fred and I tried to get into Placerville, but had to land in Cameron Park where Sue picked us up. Mike Gaisford was able to land at Calaveras and Steve at Lincoln. Such is flying In the winter time.
Sr Bilito — December 12, 2010 (26 .20101210 ) Nice flight down at 238 knots in Jerry Alves’ Baron (274 mph). He flew Pam Fallo, Bruce Hultgren & me, picking Bruce up at Concord and Pam & me at Mather (Placerville Airport was below minimums). We arrived over Ensenada, but were unable to see the runway, so went to Tijuana. They charged Bruce & Pam $23 for a visas; Jerry was not charged because he is a pilot and I had an old one which was accepted. When flying over Ensenada at 2:30 p.m., we could see the runway. The moral to this story: Do not try Ensenada until after 2 p.m. Steve Gorman, who picked up Debbie Marino & Pam Polk at Calaveras, arrived at clinic just as it was getting dark. Joe Zachwieja drove down with his daughter, Hannah, and Lena Trinh. Patti, Alfredo, Guillermo & Valentin were given their Christmas bonuses of $50 each, which brightened their day on Saturday. Saturday’s clinic was brief; we only saw 63 patients. Joe, Bruce & Steve performed 19 eye exams, gave 11 eye prescriptions and 4 reading glasses. Last weekend, eight buses transported most of the workers home for Christmas; they probably will not return until March. Bruce hung the banner which Paige Jeffs sent, informing mothers not to give their children sugared soft drinks because of the cavities they cause. Coincidentally, Joe Zachwieja brought 100 toothbrushes & 50 tubes of toothpaste; Hannah and Lena gave lessons to the children on how to brush their teeth. Lena Trinh donated $100 to our treasury to be used as needed. $150 from a scholarship which was never picked up will be returned to the treasury. Jerry Alves donated another $525 to our organization . . . thanks, big guy! Unfortunately, Guillermo has not finished painting the clinic. I discussed this with him and requested he have it finished by the time of the January clinic. We all returned home safely on Sunday.
Sr Bilito — November 15, 2010 (24 .20101112 ) Nice flight down with 20-30 knot tailwinds. Gerry Alves flew Joel Prosser, Fred Martinez & myself. Mike Gaisford flew Debbie Marino, Jared Thompson & Ryan Thompson. Steve Gorman flew Paige Jeffs, Justin Sherrill & Bruce Forrest. Steve Shaffer flew Art Tomaszewski, Liz DaCosta & Joe Zachwieja. Joel wants to start the clinic earlier, but I pointed out that Patti, who does intake, arrives sometime after 9 o’clock – this clinic, she actually arrived at 9:25. He was going to discuss this with her when she arrived, but she was carrying her sixth child (a 3-month-old baby), so he ended up cooing with the baby. So much for correcting late arrivals; Joel has a soft heart. Our medical clinic was again rather sparse and we finished around 3:30 p.m. The dental clinic was going full bore all day (see Paige’s email). The eye clinic composed of the famous trio of Zachwieja, Martinez & Gorman continue to examine, prescribe and fit glasses to the needy. They continue to take orders for new glasses and have now found a business which constructs glasses for even less than before. I worry that the local optometrists will hear about this competition and try to shut them down. We ate at Jardine’s Friday night and ate street tacos on Saturday night. The Tucson chapter had originally planned to hold clinic one week earlier this month due to concerns about room availability at our hotel, but then changed and decided to come one week after our clinic. However, they ultimately cancelled entirely. Steve Shaffer held a meeting for our pilots to discuss procedures for departing Ensenada in adverse weather. We hypothesized that the group from San Luis Obispo departed in fog and immediately flew direct toward San Quintin. This placed them toward the mountain where the impact occurred. Several of our pilots tried to locate the crash site, but were not able to identify it. Guillermo was contracted to paint our buildings inside and out for $400. On this visit, I asked him why he had not finished painting he exterior and he said he had exhausted his paint supply ($40 per gallon). He estimated that he would need two more gallons, so I gave him the final $100. He promised to complete the painting by December. We returned on Sunday with some very rough weather out of Calexico, but all returned safely; I don’t believe anyone used a barf bag. A big welcome to Gerry Alves as a new pilot flying a luxurious Baron; it was a pleasure flying with him. Hopefully, his Chief Pilot (aka Mrs. Alves) will allow further flights with us. He has donated $525 to our treasury . . . thanks, senor!
Paige — November 14, 2010 (25 .20101112 ) The dental clinic was staffed with Art Tomazsewski, Justin Sherrill, and myself. We saw 35 patients. We were a bit hindered in our ability to see more in that we were short staffed. Justin tried to serve as translator, sterilizer, and assistant. It was not sufficient, but we take what we can get. More than half of our patients were children, and nearly all of them had multiple decayed teeth. This time we tried our best to educate the mothers as to the cause of dental decay. I would say that none of the mothers knew of the connection of a heavy sugar diet and tooth decay. I am interested in developing a patient education program, and will look further into it. Billito sedated two of our patients, which was appreciated. We extracted 44 teeth, and did 5 composite fillings. I did take down my office ultrasonic cleaner, but it was not used as we had our hands full with priority treatment. We had to turn down some patients at the end of the day, as we had run out of energy. But it was a very fulfilling clinic. Dream List: To be effective, we need someone to sterilize our instruments (it runs all day). We would welcome help at the end of the clinic with clean up from anyone who finishes early on the medical side. (Just a suggestion). It takes us a good hour or more to clean up after clinic. Al, would you support this notion? New curtains coming to the dental clinic in January, courtesy of Ann Jeffs. Ok, that's all.
Sr Bilito — August 15, 2010 (23 .20100813 ) Steve Gorman flew Wanda Truong, Bruce Hultgren & Joe Zachweija. I flew Fred Martinez, Pam Polk & Pavel Kulikov; nice flight down and back. Another encounter ensued at Ensenada regarding purchasing visas at $27 each. We protested and were allowed to proceed with the admonition that next month, we would have to purchase them . . . groan. Another attempt was made to control our exit from Mexico with issuance of an official form for us to hand to the departing Mexican authorities. We left without stopping, exiting at Calexico. We saw 77 medical patients with the usual variety of problems. The optical people saw 39 new patients and delivered 25 pairs of glasses; an additional three pairs of Harry Potter glasses, eight reading glasses & took orders for eleven new pairs of glasses. The clinic now has a new color. When asked what color to paint it, I said keep the same color. I didn’t realize that the original color had faded, so now we have a real Mexican-colored building. Guillermo has given us a bid to paint all of the outside borders with primer, then yellow paint for a cost of $200. He also bid $200 to paint the inside of the medical clinic. The Board will vote on these two bids. Friday, all eight of us ate at the outside taco stand in San Quintin: 43 tacos for $20. Saturday night, we ate at the newly re-opened Old Mill Restaurant; it doesn’t seem to be any different from Jardines. Next month we will vote on which we prefer to eat at.
Sr Bilito — July 11, 2010 (22 .20100709 ) Steve Gorman flew Debbie Marino, Paige Jeffs & Pam Fallo. Steve Shaffer flew Joe Zachwieja, Art Tomaszewski, Liz DaCosta & Justin Sherrill. I flew Bob Haining, Pam Polk and Sue McDavid. Steve G. took the dental X-ray machine in his plane without any difficulty from the customs officials in Ensenada. Unfortunately, there was a glitch in its operation, causing the dental team to bring it back for further evaluation. Head winds up to 35 knots flying down followed by IFR conditions going into Ensenada, but we made it. —— We ate at Jardine's on Friday night with good food as usual. The dental building roof was completed, leaving much clean-up of dust before clinic on Saturday. Paige will write a review of dental efforts; he and Art worked busily with help from Justin and Guillermo. Our medical crew consisted of Pam Fallo, Liz DaCosta, Bob Haining & myself; we saw 110 patients with a wide array of disorders. After the last heavy rains, materials had been quickly thrown into bins to protect them from further damage and the supplies were in terrible disarray. Debbie asked Sue McDavid to organize them, and she spent all day rearranging & labeling so that in the future, we can quickly locate what we need. Oscar, foreman of the roofing crew, dropped by to ask if we needed anything other than painting, which will be done this week. They have covered the outside waiting area, which shields the patients from sun and rain. Saturday night, Joe Z. took several of us to downtown San Quintin for "street tacos" -- delicious. —— Joe Z. has now established a new enterprise called the "Charismatic Eye Salon", fitting patients with eyeglasses from a catalog having nice styles, sending their eye corrections to the firm & the glasses are delivered the next month. He did 44 eye exams and gave 12 reading glasses, 5 Harry Potter glasses & 27 new orders for glasses; his fame is definitely spreading. Regarding the scholarship applications, the date listed for returning them was dated incorrectly for Monday, July 12th. Pam Polk will decide when we will award the recipients, probably in September. —— Thinking it would be too hot to exit through Calexico as the other two pilots did, I choose Tijuana-big mistake. The Immigration Officer assessed visa fees totaling $69, plus a $9 landing fee, plus much aggravation. So much easier leaving through Calexico, but you must leave very early in the morning during summertime. It was 90 degrees at 0930 this A.M
Sr Bilito — June 13, 2010 (21 .20100611 ) Steve Gorman flew Bruce Hultgren & Joe Zachwieja (Fred Martinez did not go due to the death of his son). I flew Joanne Shope, Debbie Marino& Bob Watson. Moderate turbulence was predicted for the flight down, but was tolerable with 15-20 knot tailwinds (returning was awful, but more on that later). There was a solid overcast, making it difficult to enter Ensenada except for a few holes. Steve flew under the overcast going to San Quintin (smart pilot) and I flew above the clouds. I had to fly the 150 radial from the SQN VOR and descend through the clouds to 2000 ft. when we saw the ground. At the bar Friday night, we met five men who come to dig clams each year; one of them is a plastic surgeon in Orange County, who has offered to help us – great guy. Met up with Bill Hunt who flew down with David Bryman, an ER doc in Tucson, and they brought two first-year med students with them. We put the students to work in the clinic, which they enjoyed, and both want to come back to clinic in August. Alfredo called Oscar Garcia who is superintendant of construction supplies for the Rodriquez Corp. and we drove oveto meet with him, explaining how all of the dental equipment was removed so that the roof could be replaced. He immediately came to clinic along with Ramon, the roofing foreman, and they measured and hope to start on Monday. Oscar has a visual problem, so Joe and Bruce examined him and have ordered some upscale glasses for him. We examined Ramon, took his BP and reminded him that he promised Paige to fix the roof. Hopefully, things will come to pass and Alfredo will monitor for us. Patti is pregnant again, but she is cheerfully helping us even though she is having some tough times. She was in a car wreck and lost her license, but after some legal wrangling, has gotten the license back. Her car was totaled, but her sister is bringing her another one. Valentin is the caretaker at clinic and lives in a small, windowless room with a cookstove, but no refrigerator. Bruce suggested we give him the small frig in our clinic and Valentin was delighted to have it. Joel, I think you brought it to clinic, but because we didn’t use it, we it to good use in Valentin's room. Hopefully, you don’t mind. We saw 87 medical patients, Joe and Bruce gave 23 eye exams, gave5 "Harry Potter" sets, ordered 8 new glasses and delivered 2 sets to people from last month’s clinic. We departed through Calexico and had the roughest ride back of any trip I have taken to date. In addition, we had 15-20 knot head winds. However, we survived and returned home safely.
Alan Rabe — May 10, 2010 (20 .20100507 ) May 2010 Rotary work project Good morning everyone, A very productive May clinic, I'm sure Bill and Paige will give details for the clinic numbers. The Rotary Club of East Sacamento arrived on Wednesday prior to clinic, with myself and Patti arriving on Thursday. The orignal intent of our work project was to repair/replace the medical clinic roof. This project, however, was completed by the Los Pinos construction crew that did a great job in replacing the medical clinic roof. They are also replacing the entire roof of the Dental Clinc, this week, as well. So the Rotarians: President Carroll Dudley and Lewie Donhost, plus Becky Donhost, Rosemary Gorman and Patti Rabe, cleaned both the medical and dental clinics of debris from the roof repair and previous water damage from the rains. Rosemary, Patti and Becky also reorganized the dental clinic supplies and put away a great deal of new dental supplies donated by the Rotary club (gloves, gowns, masks, other consumable supplies) which should keep the Dental clinic stocked for many more clinics. Carroll and Lewie, along with a lot of help from Guerremo, installed new shelving and cabinets in both clinic areas and after some input from workers in the medical clinic, have identified areas that will become future work projects for either the East Sacramento Rotary, or perhaps another Rotary Club. Because we did not do the roof project, I am proposing to the Rotary Club Board of Directors that the money set aside for the roof project, be now used to help pay for a mobile dental radiographic head.The dentists can image their patients' CC (chief complaint{s}) and will help immensely with their diagnostic capabilities. Also of great importance (at least I think so), we made contact with UABC - Tijuana. They were operating a very large clinic at one of the Los Pinos housing areas that is located just south of the hotel. They operate a clinic at that location biannually utilizing about 150 medical, dental, lab technician students and about a dozen faculty (unbelievably, our clinic schedules normally do not coincide) . We saw their clinic in operation and they also came to visit our facility. After some dialogue, we felt it would be a great to collaborate with each other. They have tentatively scheduled their next clinic to coincide with our November clinic. Dr Renan Gonzalez Ramirez, an attending faculty member, will be commnunicating via email (I exchanged email addresses with him). He will speak to the UABC - Tijuana Dean and get approval for the collaborative arrangements. We gave their dental clinic some of our consumable supplies and they wanted to give us some of their meds which they did not want to bring back to Tijuana. One problem: hotel space when Flying Sams and the school are in town together, there's not enough hotel space at Hotel Santa Maria. Our charter to operate in Baja Mexico says that our healthcare providers are visiting faculty, so this a great opportunity to exercise this obligation; but also make new friends and colleagues and exchange ideas and techniques. Maybe we can all learn something new! This is an exciting development and I hope we can improve on this relationship over the next few months.
Sr Bilito — May 10, 2010 (19 .20100507 ) Steve Gorman flew Mark Abel, Debbie Marino, and Bob Watson. Joel flew his wife Heidi, Paige Jeffs, Justing Sherrill, and Joe Zachweija. Dean flew me, Laureen and Bob Haining. When we stopped at Stockton for Haining, the starter motor housing cracked and made an awful noise. Dean found a crack and a mechanic from Top Gun Repair shop told us we needed a new starter. While Haining and I drove to Skyranch for a new starter, they removed the cowling and the damaged starter. We handed them the starter and shortly thereafter we were on the way to clinic. Great tail wind and we arrived at the hotel four hours after leaving Stockton-6P.M. Great clinic with Rotary International there replacing locks and building new cabinets for the medical area. The dentists saw 40 patients with ten fillings and one cleaning( Ramon foreman of the roofers was given exalted status by Paige). Al Rabe and Patti arrived and hooked up with the medical-dental school from Tijuana and had them visit our clinic Saturday. We were invited to visit their large clinic site and given any meds that we wanted. We plan to meet them again in November. Joe Zachweija has been made a hero as he examined a bus driver who was just about legally blind requiring lenses that we don’t usually stock because the correction is off the wall. He apparently lit up with a big smile when he given his new glasses. The medics saw about 65 patients with the usual variety of problems. Jonathan’s clutch container was without fluid and obviously wouldn’t function. After adding brake fluid it works fine. Be certain to check it for fluid in June. The hotel now offers brunch on Sunday morning from 0700 to 1300hrs for $8. About half of us ate there and Manuel allowed two for the price of one. Rough head winds returning home, but we all made it back.
SR Bilito — April 11, 2010 (18 .20100409 ) Four planes carried 18 people who all had a good time. Nice flight down on Friday, but due to weather concerns on returning Sunday, we elected to return Saturday afternoon; I landed in Placerville about 6:30 p.m. Ensenada presented no problems for us regarding bringing in meds or being asked to pay for visas. An unfortunate event clouded the joy of the day when Gwen Douglass passed out her great cookies, but returning to her purse, discovered her wallet with $300 missing along with driver's license and credit cards. When she arrived at the hotel in San Quintin, she was told her credit cards were found in the trash, but license and money were missing. Only military personnel were present when she lost her valuables. This is the first time that I can recall loss of personal effects by our volunteers. She then produced a check to our organization for $1,000 from one of her friends ( a previous donor). Talk about ups and downs; however, she continued to smile. Sadly, Mary Kay Bush announced that this was her last trip to clinic with her group from Tucson. She is needed at home to care for her mother and several of her older children. She will be missed. The red van, which has served us for years, has now been replaced with the a 12-passenger van which Bruce Hultgren found for us. A phone call was made to Verland asking if he agreed to our disposing of the van. He had no objections, so it was decided to give it to Guillermo. We need to remove our name from ownership to avoid liability. Valentin exposed the broken cover for the septic system behind the clinic and replaced it with a new wooden cover. He agreed to replace the cover with concrete, so he was given $20 for necessary materials. Joe Zachwieja scheduled a meeting with Oscar Murillo who is the head of all maintenance for the Rodriquez company. He and Alfonso Rodriquez surveyed the roof and agreed to replace it and also paint the inside. He explained that their company had purchased the Old Mill and were busy renovating it, so were not able to work on our clinic as promised last month. He plans to replace the roof tomorrow, Monday, April 12. All supplies will be paid for by the corporation. He then plans to paint the interior next week. I explained to him that Martha planned to send men over May 3rd and 4th for removal of the roof, but he seems to feel that his men will do the work tomorrow. Joe believes that he will do as he says and that he has another group of men to work on our clinic, not stopping work on the Old Mill. We will again ask for observation by Alfredo to report progress. Apparently two separate groups descended on San Quintin last week, providing health care with one report indicating they had cared for 400 hundred people. We saw very few patients, so closing our doors at noon Saturday did not seem to impact many patients. We did see Flor who has actually gained a couple of pounds and remains quite active. Her SaO2 was 91%. Angelina appeared (27-year-old with severe rheumatoid arthritis. She did not take her methotrexate as recommended and also her ferrous gluconate and folic acid. She stated that it caused diarrhea. It is distressing to think that we spent $40 for her meds and that it was not used. We can only try to help. The ophthalmic department continues to provide needed help to correct visual defects. Eighteen eye exams, six prescriptions and two reading glasses. Steve Shaffer carried Bruce Hultgren, Bob Haining, Liz Sivesend & Gwen Douglass Joel carried Heidi, John Prosser, Marianna Locke & Gordon Worley Steve Gorman carried Debbie Marino, Pam Polk & Ruth So I carried Fred Martinez & my wife, Sue, as far as Riverside, dropped Sue off, then picked up Lisa Bojorquez (my daughter) & Bob Colgan; returned to Riverside to get Sue again yesterday after dropping Lisa & Bob off. Filed IFR to get into Placerville.
Elizabeth DaCosta — March 17, 2010 (16 .20100312 ) Not sure exactly what to include so I'll just mention a few memorable patients. Please let me know if you need additional information. -15 month old boy with a chronically draining right ear. Has been on oral antibiotics and ear drops intermittently since that time. On exam the boy has thick middle ear fluid that is purulent (infected) on the right. Left looked somewhat better. He had been on Amoxicillin recently. I wanted to treat this kid with something stronger but all we had in the clinic was Amox, Erythromycin and Biaxin. Back in America this kid would have been given a prescription for Augmentin and put on the operating room schedule for tympanostomy tubes. Hearing and language development is critical during this time so getting this problem under control is important. -6 month pregnant woman with complaints of abdominal pain/cramping for past 3 days and worsening. No bloody discharge. Saw a doctor at another clinic who recommended blood and urine test but did not order and asked her to return in a month. Pain was in the left lower belly so acute appendicitis unlikely (phewwww). Constipation? Maybe - she had some stool in rectum. Protein in urine dip but no sign infection. Cervix closed so unlikely premature labor. Unclear the cause but hopefully she will be ok with stool softener and Flagyl for suspected vaginitis. -59 year old female with numbness and tingling in lower legs for a year. Previous visit to doctor had showed pre diabetes. Blood sugar 160 (no food for 6 hours) so possible. common symptom in diabetics (neuropathy). Also complained of small ball in anal area for 3 years. Would drain occasionally. Sure enough, small raised mass with greenish material oozing out. ? Anal fistula. Recomended sitz baths to see if would drain spontaneously. Is anal fistula than surgical problem, which will be nearly impossible to get treated. Third complaint was pain mid back after assault one month ago by stranger. Probably muscular....After clinic we saw this woman hitch hiking on the main road and so we offered a ride and took her home. She gave us cucumbers as thank you gift. -Woman in late 40's with chest pain/shortness of breath and elevated blood pressure. Never treated for high blood pressure or told had any health problems. EKG showed evidence of left venticle hypertrophy. Started her on blood pressure meds, ASA. 44 yo man who claimed to have had heart attack age 41 and now with daily chest burning especially at night. Sounded like possible GE reflux but checked with EKG which possible right sided ischemia. This guy needs a full cardiac workup! Started on ASA and Prilosec. Hope for the best. Several skin rashs, headaches and sore low back. Thank God for the hydrocortisone and Ibuprofen.. Best, Elizabeth
Mike, Paige, Ryan — March 17, 2010 (17 .20100312 ) This month, Bruce and Debbie drove down the new 12-passenger van to the clinic. Joe assisted Bruce to purchase 1-year’s worth of insurance. Much thanks to goes to Dana, Derek, Joe, Bruce and Debbie who worked Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday to inventory and discard damaged supplies, mop up several inches of water, and dry out the clinic after recent rains once again was a problem due to the leaking roof. Oscar Rodriguez has now offered to replace the clinic roof and paint the inside of the clinic. This is to be done within two weeks. The Rotary Club should continue with their plans in the event that something changes. Clinic began many days prior to Saturday. This is often the case as plans need to be finalized. This clinic was no exception, with changing weather, airplane preparations, people and locations all quite fluid. Dr. Ryan Thompson wanted to include a trip to see the annual stop of the California grey whales in Laguna San Ignacio, since his daughter Emily – a busy college senior in Santa Barbara – would be available. With some flight planning and some good weather, we were able to pick up Emily at SBA and head down a day early – Thursday. Debbie Marino was already there advocating some runway repairs that were completed just prior to our arrival. The strip was super flat, although still wet and soft due to recent rains. We had a great time with many mother and calf combinations, spy-hopping and one close encounter with a giant tail fin right under the boat. Saturday held the usual clinic business with two dentists providing greatly needed care. The medical and optometry team worked their special skills as well. Upon leaving clinic (well after dark), we encountered a patient who was hitch-hiking home. We picked her up but she couldn’t describe where she lived. After driving all the way to the north end of San Quintin, she finally told us where to turn. She gave us cucumbers (Don’t tell customs). Since we were all the way up north, we stopped for dinner at the restaurant Santa Isabella - great food and a nice place. The trip home was long due to a strong head wind, but clear weather and a beautiful flight. -Mike On the flight down, Steve and Art departed Santa Rosa into low overcast and rain. They stopped in Stockton to pick up Liz and Justin and the trip from there down to the Ranch was uneventful. Ensenada Customs seems to be getting more and more interested in going though the baggage and we were asked multiple times about any medicine or supplies that were being carried. The runway at the ranch was in very good shape, having been graded the day before. There were however some soft spots that had to be avoided. Steve checked on the condition of the Cielito Lindo runway and found it was in excellent shape. The recent rain had no negative impact on it. If conditions required it, one could land there and walk to the hotel. However, it should be only be used in an emergency because it is not currently certified with the Mexican government. For lunch, the fish tacos were purchased unassembled and overwhelmingly people felt the tacos were better this way than when they are assembled at the stand. On the trip home, Bruce returned in Steve’s plane, having driven down in the new Van. The trip home was only marred by 35 knot winds aloft which provided us a 17 knot headwind component. Other than that is was a beautiful day to be flying. Steve Gorman flew Paige Jeffs, Tom Ashmead, and Cindy Ashmead. We flew at low altitude (to Tom’s delight) the entire way and back to avoid headwinds. Upon arrival into Ensenada, we were required to unpack the entire baggage department and every box of medications was thoroughly examined. We were told that for future trips we need to have an official permit issued by customs in downtown Ensenada in order transport medications across the border. A special thank you to Wally from the Tucson group who was able to inform us enroute to El Rosario that only a few cattle were present at that airfield; hence, no ride waiting for us. He said that the others were able to land at Robertson Ranch without incident. Most of the group went to dinner at Jardins, some stayed at the hotel. We had a productive day in the dental clinic, with a lot of great help. Surprisingly, we ran out of patients around 4:30 pm, even though it was announced on the radio that we would have two dentists. Joe's friends Dana and Derick did chairside assisting. Justin Sherrill assisted our new dentist, Art. Tom Ashmead was right on top of things, keeping our sterilizers going all day. For the first time, we never ran out of essential, sterilized instruments during the day. Tom also was able to replace a burned out dental light for us. Art said he enjoyed working at the clinic, the flight, his fellow Flying Sams, and the food at Jardin's. He was nervous that fish tacos were the only choice for lunch at the clinic, but he found them to be to his liking as well. Hopefully he will return on a regular basis. His wife is also a dentist in Santa Rosa, and Art says she may get involved as well. We saw 44 patients on Saturday (70% extractions and 30% fillings). Justin Sherrill (age 16) again showed amazing maturity and ambition. He has an excellent understanding of dental procedures and instruments. He can pretty much fix anything that breaks. His Spanish is coming along so well that we did not need a translator in the clinic. The real director of dental services is Justin. We just show up and he runs the place.--Paige Ryan and Elizabeth saw 72 patients and remained in the clinic until 6PM. Elizabeth jumped right in and fearlessly started treating patients and did a great job! Many return visitors, some of who had run out of meds due to our absence in February. One patient had very high blood pressure which was symptomatic due to stopping her meds; brought under control while in the clinic. We saw the 14 year old with the old ankle injury back. She had improved somewhat with splinting. The repeat x-ray still shows no fracture and she was placed in an old walking cast for 4 weeks until the next clinic. An MRI and early surgery would have been nice. The bus wreck victims did not come to clinic but are reportedly healing up okay and received 200,000 pesos in settlement from the bus company. I would like to bring some supplies to do KOH smears on rashes for future clinics. I will arrange it if we have a functioning microscope. Do we? --Ryan Saturday night, some of the group went again to Jardins, some went out for street tacos, and some stayed at the hotel for dinner. There have been many improvements at the hotel since under new ownership: live music in the bar Saturday night, softer water, and a fabulous Sunday brunch in the brightly lit beachfront conference room. Sunday’s trip home was without incident—in and out of Calexico in about 15 minutes and again low altitude flying to avoid headwinds.
Sr Bilito — January 11, 2010 (15 .20100108 ) Steve Shaffer flew Paige Jeffs, Mark Abel, and Justin Sherrill. Steve Gorman flew Jarrett and Ryan Thompson and Debbie Marino. I pulled my plane from the hanger, tried to start it and the starter solenoid stuck discharging the battery. My mechanic tapped on the solenoid and it released, but I had to spend about 45 minutes charging the battery. I was due to pick up Bruce Hultgren at Stockton Airport at 1000hrs. Because I was late, he used a public phone (does not have a cell phone) and left me an email telling me he was waiting. We departed Placerville at 1010 and after making two approaches into Stockton with the ceiling at 300 feet but unable to see down the runway, we departed for clinic. Pam Fallo was able to text a message to her daughter who then phoned Sue. She called Bruce’s home and left a message regarding our inability to land. Poor Bruce waited until 1100 hrs before giving up. Joe Zachweija, Dana and Lena met us at Jardines Friday night. Friday afternoon, Paige, Mark, and Justin worked at the dental clinic cleaning out “old stuff” and Fred will forward a picture of it now. There is now a third dental chair which they are using to inject the patients while waiting for their turn in the operative chairs. They had Dana helping on Saturday and treated 45 patients including the first ever root canal. Paige also inserted a “flipper tooth” into a young man, which Bob of Tucson made for him. A real life change for him. Our opticians performed 15 eye exams, fitted six eye glasses, and two reading glasses. One man needed an eight diopter correction which was a “wow” experience for him when he was given his glasses The Medics saw about 81 patients including Angelina who returned to clinic with Pati finding her for us. She is 27 and wheel chair bound from Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis since age five. She has now been started on methotrexate which will hopefully arrest the progression of the disease. There was a tragic bus accident killing 14 people including the mother of two young girls about ages 9 and 7. The girls survived, but one has a possible broken ankle.. Ryan and Pati went to the home of one of the victims who is paralyzed from the neck down, with multiple broken bones. The girls were brought to clinic and Ryan removed sutures from one of the girls. The xrays were of such poor quality that Ryan couldn’t diagnose whether a fracture was present. It was too late in the day to take her for xrays so we’ll see her next clinic. For some reasons , they were never started in school so that is another social problem for them. A mother brought a two year old with both feet turned inward so that he essentially is walking on the ends of his leg bones. We have his name so next clinic we will take him to town for xrays and hopefully present them to Shriners to see if they can help him. Unfortunately the roof has leaked again, so we eagerly await for a new roof in March. We all returned home safely.
Sr Bilito — November 13, 2009 (1 .20091111 ) Nice flight down with Steve Gorman flying Gwen Douglass, Paige Jiffs, and Mark Abel. Mike Gaisford flew Debbie Marino, Justin Sherrill, and Bruce Forrest. I flew Bob Haining, Pam Fallo, and Liz Sivesend. Joe Zachwieja drove down with Dana Duey, Hannah, and Lena Trihn. Ensenada was great because the Immigration Officer was at lunch, so none of us received a visa; however, the Mexican Government has developed a new form with four copies-one to the Commandant, one to Customs, one to Immigration, and one to the pilot. This form must be surrendered upon departure from Mexico. The form is then supposed to return to the issuing agency. Steve exited through Mexicali and they didn’t take his form. Mike exited without stopping at Mexicali, and exited through Ensenada and they were happy to have the form returned to them. So much for the bureaucracy of Mexico. The medics saw 80 patients with Liz awed with the clinic setup. The energizer bunny (Pam) was busy as ever and Haining filing and cutting prosthesis to fit the patients. The eye department examined 30 patients and gave nine pairs of prescription glasses and five reading patients. Joe fitted glasses to one patient and she yelled “wow” when she put them on. The dentists had 43 patients with half extractions and half fillings. Paige examined a young man who had chewing gum wedged in the space of a front missing tooth. He didn’t want it removed, but Paige and Mark have taken an impression and Bob from the Tucson group is going to make a flipper tooth to insert in the space. This will be given to him in January. Gwen Douglass came through again with another large donation of $1,500. This has really been a boost to our treasury because we have not had any fund raisers. Thanks so much, Gwen! Alfredo and I visited a pharmacy in San Quintin and discussed prices with the owner-Sr Ruiz. If we order more than $100 we’ll receive a 33% discount. Debbie will give me a list on Thursday, then I will have Fred Martinez request prices in Spanish (Sr Ruiz only speaks Spanish). After we have negotiated depending on prices, an order will be placed. I am optimistic. Many changes of beautification have occurred at Mission Santa Maria with more to come. Tucson has planned a Christmas Party in the Bar with dinner and a band. Mary Kay will provide us with details in the near future with a choice of meats for the dinner. We all returned safely.
Sr Bilito — October 9, 2009 (5 .20091009 ) Joel flew Heidi, Bruce Hultgren, and Mariana Locke. Steve Gorman flew Gwen Douglas, Alec Hodgins, and Lena Walther. I flew Debbie Marino, Fred Martinez and Joanne Shope. Surprise at Ensenada, Immigration demanded $22 from each of us for a visa. This document is valid for six months if you remain in the country, but once you leave, it no longer is of use. This means we would each pay $22 on every trip to clinic. Fred Martinez and Marianna Locke will visit the Mexican Counselant in Sacramento to see if we can get a waiver. The medics a saw about 75 patients. Angelina who is a 26 year old rheumatoid patient whom we were going to start on methotrexate this clinic, but unfortunately she didn’t show up, and we don’t have her address. Twenty five eye exams with six prescriptions and ten reading glasses. Joe Zachweija brought Lena Trinh and Dana Duey who are two young coworkers. Dana has decided to donate $500 and Pfizer will match his donation. In addition, Gwen Douglas presented a check for $2500 from an electrical firm whom she gave a presentation about our mission in San Quintin and received a great donation. Alec Hodgins had a group of students from his high school assemble 60 back packs which will be distributed to the students who applied for a scholarship, but didn’t qualify. Their names will be announced over the radio in San Quintin and the packs will be distributed from our clinic. New prices at the hotel-$42 room rate for two nights; a pitcher of Margs for $19 instead of $30 and beer $2. It is rumored that the management will soon have a band play on Saturdays. We returned home safely.
Sr Bilito — September 11, 2009 (6 .20090909 ) Joel flew Heidi, Paige and Paige’s daughter, Jodi, as well as Justin Sherrill. Steve Gorman flew Jerrod Thompson & his father, Ryan, & Debbie Marino (she had driven down with Overland, but flew back with Steve). I flew Bob Haining, Pam Polk and Fred Martinez. Head winds down, but smooth. Arriving at Ensenada, the new Customs Officer was there with a new way to do things. First, take your luggage into the terminal and press a button; if the light reads "pass", your luggage is not inspected. However, if it reads red, then the soldiers inspect it. The Customs officer then wanted to see receipts for all of our meds. Fortunately, the Assistant Commandant came to our rescue and explained that we were coming down to Mexico to treat indigent patients, using our own money to pay to fly and also to buy medicines. Fred Martinez will compose a letter explaining our functions and will give a copy to each of our pilots, which should grease our arrivals in the future. Verland and Ben worked repairing the roof along with three men who Martha sent over. Hopefully, this should protect us until next March. Verland also changed the tire on the green van. Verland changed the combination to our lock after Paige Jeffs discovered that six bottles of topical anesthetic were stolen ($25 per bottle) along with many dental instruments, dental bonding material, mucho xylo and Marcaine local anesthetics. It appears that the door to the dental clinic was opened with a screw driver and not with a key. The new combination is 1965. Paige treated 33 patients with help from his daughter, Jodi, as well as Justin and Rotarians Chris Alexander, Becky Donhost and Rosemary Gorman. Debbie moved all of the materials back into the medical area with help from Alfredo, and the clinic is now nicely organized and clean. Carroll Dudley and Lewie Donhost added new wiring with lights in the bathroom, and wiring also for outside lights. The eye men -- Fred Martinez, Jerrod Thompson and Joe Zachweija -- performed 24 eye exams & dispensed 7 eyeglasses and 3 reading glasses. Two interesting cases presented: In October of 2008, a slightly overweight 14-year-old girl twisted her ankle when she fell. Her mother has social security and the daughter had X-rays taken which did not show a fracture, but a separation (torn) of the interosseous ligament which holds the fibula to the tibia. This tear prevents the fibula from performing its lateral function of supporting the foot while walking. As a result, she limps and has done so since the time of injury. She was sent for X-rays on Saturday, which the mother will take to the local doctor; she was told that Flying Sam’s docs reviewed the films and requested that she be sent to Ensenada for repair by an orthopedic surgeon. Stay tuned. The second case involves a 26-year-old female with a 14-year history of rheumatoid arthritis. Her father was qualified with social security and she was treated with methotrexate, a very helpful drug in treating rheumatoid arthritis. Unfortunately, the father lost his job and her treatment ceased. The father could only afford prednisone 5 mgs. Daily which was totally inadequate (she needed 50 mgs. Daily). She presented to clinic in a wheelchair, rigidly afraid to move because the least movement caused incredible pain. The disease has totally removed all cartilage between her bones -- she has bone against bone. Haining and Thompson agreed that she needs to go back on methotrexate which I will start during the October clinic. She has been placed on prednisone 20 mgs. For one week, then 15 mgs. For one week, then 10 mgs. And finally tapered to 5 mgs. She will start on methotrexate 7.5 mgs. Once per week, checking her blood work in October. She has a Hgb of only 5 mg. and I’ll contact an oncologist here in Placerville to find an iron supplement that she can tolerate, to try and raise her Hgb. Haining will try to find a motorized wheelchair for her. She is a pretty, young lady dealt some bum cards. Steve Gorman and I flew to Calexico and upon landing, received a phone call from some schmuck who told us we were in violation crossing back into the U.S. without a bar code number supposedly issued by Homeland Security. We were told to contact the FAA to see if we would be fined for this violation. Neither of us have heard of such a thing. Steve tried to call the FAA, but no one was on duty. Outrageous.
Sr Bilito — August 9, 2009 (7 .20090811 ) Steve Shaffer flew Pam Polk, Jacob Margo, Jacob Muller, and Phillip Muller. Mike Gaisford flew Debbie Marino, Alec Hodgins, and Edwardo Sevilla. I flew Bob Haining, Pam Polk and Elisa Savageau. The Rabes flew to San Diego and rented a car to drive to clinic. Joe Zachwieja and Hannah also drove down. Nice flight down with tail winds. Very windy with mucho dust in San Quintin with many dust devils. Visited Ceilito Lindo for dinner but mosquitoes were so bad that we ate inside. Saturday morning dental clinic started at 0830 and finished at 1600 hrs with Mike and Patti helping Al and Joe lining up those with pain as first patients. He performed brief exams by looking into their mouths for teeth rotted at the gum line. They saw 17 patients. The medics saw 97 patients with Haining fitting prostheses on several amputees. Jacob Muller translated for me and Alfredo and Patti agreed that his Spanish was excellent. Pam Fallo was like the energizer bunny never stopping until we finished around 1600hrs. Jacob hopes to return in the near future. His father Phillip cleaned all day as the dust was pervasive throughout the clinic. Hannah and Steve performed 20 eye exams and dispensed 9 pairs of glasses. One older man was severely myopic (-11 diopters), and since lenses with this severe of a correction cost several hundred dollars, Joe is going to visit Peale Vision to see if they will donate glasses. Also Patti Rabe works for VSP-a vision insurance company, and plans to approach her boss to see if they will donate. Pam Polk and Alfredo awarded 45 scholarships of $100 each. Our Board voted to award 40 scholarships, but when Imelda and Peter Priest saw that five of the recipients had a 9.2 grade point average but we didn’t have the money for them, the two of them gave us $500 toward their scholarships. What spirit. Thanks so much for your donation. The green van has a sick left rear tire, so don’t drive it until Verland replaces it. We usually depart San Quintin, and land at Brown Field. Today Shaffer contacted Tijuana Approach and when he told them that he had departed Ensenada, he was told that he had not and he was required to land at Tijuana. Gaisford and I followed suit. It is a pain in the ass to land at Tijuana, so in the future we will check out at Ensenada. Good flight home
Sr Bilito — July 12, 2009 (8 .20090712 ) Joel flew Heidi, Pam and Jacob Fallo, and Bruce Hultgren. Steve Shaffer flew Debbie Marino, Emily Greig, and friend Sam Benson, and Magdalena Walther. I flew Cindy Ashmead, Bob and his son Nick. Nice flight down. Joe and Hannah drove down as did Verland and Sterling. Friday night we drove to Jardene’s and enjoyed a fine meal. On the way, the accelerator stuck on the red van and Bob Colgan removed an oil cap which was somehow inside the air intake. No problems. Saturday the medics saw 81 patients, Bill Hunt flew Cindy Gerszewski a chiropractor from Tucson who worked at our clinic and treated 28 patients. Joe Zachweija and Bruce Hultgen did 45 eye exams, and filled 14 pairs of eye glasses. Unfortunately Flor had a fever of 102.6 with inflamed tympanic membranes. She takes amoxicillin 125 mg prophylactic ally, so I gave her erythromycin to be taken additionally. Around 2:30 A.M. Sunday, Steve Shaffer and I were sharing a room and an intruder entered saying he was locked out of his room and wanted to try to get into his first floor room by rapelling down from our second floor balcony. We encouraged him to leave post haste. Debbie and Emily stocked all of the boxes of materials that Verland brought down. Debbie had arranged to have the supplies donated. Heidi collected the scholarship applications and will hand them over to Imelda. We all returned safely Sunday. SR Bilito Bob-Antonio did not show for further shoulder evaluation.
Sr Bilito — June 14, 2009 (9 .20090614 ) Steve Shaffer flew Paige Jeffs, Justin Sherrill, Magdelena Walthers, and Pam Fallo. I flew Debbie Marino, Fred Martinez, and Emily Greir. Nice flight down with ten knot headwinds. Leaving the clinic area headed for the hotel, Justin handed the FS sign to be hung on the gate the next morning. When we arrived the next morning, no sign. Apparently the guard thought Justin was giving him the sign as a gift, so he took it home. Valentine will attempt to retrieve it. When we arrived Friday two of the Rodriquez brothers-Alfonso and Arturo, greeted us thanking us for what we do. They apologized for not building us a new clinic across the road and we assured them we are happy where we are and especially pleased with the new bathrooms in the airplane hanger. They gave us a bottle of clear tequila which Fred informed us is excellent quality. We took it to Juan who made us pitchers of Marguerites with it. We went to Ceilito Lindo for dinner, but didn’t wait around for dancing. Saturday, we opened clinic and Patti appeared with a new baby born in May. Her boy friend will be moving in with her next month. Clinic was especially busy as we saw 99 patients including Antonio who is now able to place his left arm over his head after we freed his frozen shoulder last month. Sophia Cruz is a young girl with filamentous lesions on her tongue. Paige looked at it and didn’t feel it was related to her chewing on it. I applied viscous xylocaine 2% and burned the lesions with a cautery. She was given Childrens Motrin for pain-hopefully she will return next month. Flor has gained another one-quarter pound and remains active in spite of only having a single heart ventricle. Paige and Justine treated 40 patients and finished by 5:30. Fred, Joe, and Steve performed 24 eye exams, provided six pairs of glasses, and five reading glasses. Pam Fallo was a human dynamo running between two rooms all day long. That evening she had three Marguerites, ate dinner at Ceilito Lindo and danced up a storm. The red van has been a problem the last two clinics with a dead battery. Saturday, Steve and Guillermo took it to an electrician that he knows and after an exam declared that the system was O.K. and suggested disconnecting the battery before leaving to for home. Steve did this and we eagerly await to check it at July clinic. Emily Greir is a flight nurse in Reno who has joined us. She decided to help Debbie clean the clinic and so all day Saturday, she cleaned. I think because she is from New Zealand her goal in life is to “clean”. We refer to her as Kiwi. Magdelelna Walthers decided to help Justin and Paige so she performed injections to help them along. What a team. Sunday, Steve flew to Calexico, and I chose Brown Field-shot the VOR approach. Checking In with Customs, one of my passengers did not have their passport. The officer took my passport and license and informed me that as the pilot, I am held accountable with possible penalties. He mentioned that with a clean record there might not be any penalties, but that decision will be made by his superiors. Burn incense.
Sr Bilito — May 17, 2009 (10 .20090515 ) Headwinds going to clinic but tail winds coming home. Steve Gorman flew Debbie Marino, Jared and Ryan Thompson. Joel flew Heidi and his son John and Paige Jeffs. I flew Pam Polk, Justin Sherrill, and Bob Haining. Went to dinner Friday night at Ceilito Lindo and all seemed to enjoy their food. There was much dancing and all had a good time. Paige Jeffs and Justin Sherrill started dental clinic at 0830 and worked until 2000 hrs that evening. Haining and Pam Polk helped them clean up afterwards. They saw 44 patients with three fillings, 7 cleanings and the rest extractions. Joe Zachweija performed 20 eye exams and assembled 8 pairs of glassed and one pair of reading glasses. We saw 65 medical patients-the Tijuana School of Medicine help clinic across the highway from us and this may have reduced our patient load. Flor visited and has now gained one # and her mother say she is still very active. Antonio is a patient whom we saw last month with a frozen shoulder. I put him to sleep and Haining manipulated his shoulder-the noise from fracturing the adhesions led Haining to insist on an xray to rule out a fracture-there was no fracture. When Antonio awakened he was in severe pain in spite of my injecting bupivicaine. Haining gave him two Tylenol with codeine and he felt better. He then went in for an eye exam and was fitted with glasses-total care for our patients. A 75 years old man hobbled into clinic with severe back muscle spasms. Alfredo and Guillermo lifted him onto the exam table and I placed an epidural injections. After time he felt better and wanted to know if it was O.K. to work tomorrow? Marty Jansen donated$100 last month thanking us for care given to Antonio who is his employee. This month he donated another $75. A gentleman whom we saw two months ago in clinic arrived with two large boxes of strawberries. Saturday night we went to Jarden’s and upon arrival steam was coming from under the hood of the green van. We left it there and nine of us rode back to the hotel in Joe’s Ford Escape. Joel arranged for Guillermo to tow the vehicle to his mechanic’s shop on Monday-hopefully it’s not too expensive to fix. Sunday morning, Guillermo made smoothies with the strawberries which was very sweet without added sugar. Joel announded that today is Heidi’s birthday, but we did not have a big celebration as in past years. As we get older the joy of another birthday seems less exciting. All returned home safely. Sr Bilito
Sr Bilito — April 19, 2009 (11 .20090417 ) Mike Gaisford flew Pablo Samiento, Justin Sherrill, and Bruce Hultgren. Dean flew his daughter Lauren, Pam Polk, and Bob Haining. Steve Gorman flew Monica Francisco, Fred Martinez, and myself. Joe Zachweija drove down and arrived at 9 P.M.-clean shaven. Great flight down and back with good tailwinds. The clinic lock is causing problems, so Gaisford tried to fix it with WD 40 with some success, but it appears to be worn out. Friday, several of us visited Ceilito Lindo to inspect the bathrooms and ask about the food. We were offered a special house for the ladies to use the rest rooms. We ate there Friday night and all agreed the food was very good. In addition, the band was great and most of us cut a rug-even Justin. Saturday, on the way to clinic, the wiper motor on the red van acted up so Gaisford had to pull the fuse. In addition we ran out of fuel ¼ mile from the station, but Mike drove us for fuel. The clinic was sparsely attended due to ???? Maybe because Easter Sunday fell on the second weekend of the month. We say 69 patients but almost no diabetics or hypertensives. We saw an unfortunate man who worked for Marty at a house in San Quentin, injured his shoulder six months ago, hasn’t used it due to pain and now has a frozen shoulder. We injected it with bupivicaine and Celestone, and gave him ibuprofen to use three times a day until next clinic and Neurontin to help his reflex sympathetic dystrophy as a result of his injury. His boss Marty donated $100 to our clinic in appreciation for our efforts. Justin, Lauren, and Steve packaged our meds, Bruce, Fred and Joe Zachweija performed 33 eye exam, did 4 glasses and gave 6 reading glasses. Dave of the Tucson group introduced Jay Fogle DDS who would like to help Paige Jeffs with the dental clinic . Saturday we visited Jardine’s for another good meal. Although the band was good we were all tired and no one danced. Sunday after a nice breakfast we returned home with good weather. Upon arriving at Placerville Airport Fred Martinez found Lisa Ashley’s keys which have been missing for one month.
Sr Bilito — March 15, 2009 (12 .20090313 ) Finally made it to clinic having missed February due to weather. Nice flight down-smooth. Steve flew Lisa Ashley, Paige Jeffs and Fred Martinez. I flew Mary Cunningham-Lusby, Debbie Marino and Amelia Erhart (aka Cindy Ashmead). Amelia flew down and back doing very well with handling the radio and flying. She takes her pilot checkride sometime this summer. Runway at San Quintin is now in great condition. The dental clinic had a large amount of termite debris which Paige went over early Saturday to clean up. When we arrived he was on his seventh extraction-what a worker. He saw 40 patients with about 30 extractions and 7 fillings. Mary, Lisa and I plugged away and saw 83 patients. We had several referrals to specialty clinic at Buen Pastore. Twenty eye exams were performed and 15 pairs of eyeglasses fitted. Steve Gorman examined a 75 year old lady who required significant lens correction and when she put them on a big smile lit her face. Steve’s face lit up also. Fred climbed onto the roof, measured and will report to Al Rabe. We were all off a little on time because Mexico doesn’t convert to DST until April 5th, so we were a bit early for breakfast. La Palapa has raised their food prices significantly such that we thought maybe we should find another restaurant for Friday night. Jardine’s prices seemed reasonable so we may decide to eat there both nights. Group decides. As Lisa says “stay well”
Sr Bilito — January 11, 2009 (14 .20090109 ) Well, it was an interesting clinic at San Quintin this weekend. Thanks to all of you who called regarding the closure of the runway at Robertson Ranch due to 15 days of rain. Alfredo is a jewel & advised us of the placement of barrels on the runway, preventing landing there. It would have caused damage to aircraft due to the sodden areas, plus damage to the runway itself. More about that later. Debbie Marino recognized that I wouldn’t be able to land at Calaveras to pick her up Friday due to fog obscuring the runway, so she spent the night with her son, Paul, in Placerville. We departed Placerville Friday with Debbie, Paige Jeffs & Joanne Shope, then flew over Calaveras; it was totally obscured by fog. Before departure, Alfredo called my wife to request that she tell me that the clinic runway was not useable due to rain damage. We flew to Ensenada in 3 hrs. & 4 minutes in very smooth air. At Ensenada, Debbie called Bill Hunt (Tucson head pilot) and received permission for us to land at a 6,000 ft. runway at El Rosario; this was built by a famous golfer expecting to build a resort there, which would allow wealthy clients to fly their jets there to look things over. We arrived there (only 21 miles south of our runway) and Bill Hunt transported us to their clinic to look it over, then he drove us to our vehicle at Robertson Ranch. We were shocked at the amount of water that had entered through the leaking roof, especially over all of our sterile dressings which Debbie had to throw away. We now have mold in the ceiling which I think, with time, will dry and disappear. The dental clinic seemed to be spared. We missed clinic in December due to weather preventing flying, so it felt good to get “back in the saddle.” Bill Hunt dropped us off at clinic and then drove down to El Rosario and brought back a R.N. named Nancy who was a big help. Guillermo helped Paige in the dental clinic until 2 o’clock, then Joe took over (recipient of this year’s Flying Sam’s award). The dentists need help for suctioning, sterilizing instruments, etc. and he is willing to train them OJT (on-the-job training). Joanne and I saw 71 patients and Paige saw 17 because he did mostly fillings and not extractions. Guillermo, Patti, Valentine and Alfredo were very appreciative of the $50 Christmas bonus given to each of them. Saturday, the group went to Jardines and then afterward, Mary Kay hired Lupe to bake an awesome banana cake. We all porked out on it. Bill Hunt and I inspected the runway and Bill took some pictures which I will forward upon receiving them. Sunday,13 of us piled into their van and we were delivered to the airport for return home. The ride was bumpy most of the way with 15-20 knot headwinds, but we arrived safely.

Joel — October 09, 2011 (41 .20111007 )

Steve Shaffer took Joe Zachwieja, Bruce Hultgren, and Gwen Douglass; Mark Rudolph carried Mike Gaisford, Ryan Thompson, and Jared Thompson; Steve Gorman took Debbie Marino, Cindy Ashmead, and Mariana Locke; I flew Bob Haining, Pam Polk, Emily Klein, and Jocelyn Mansfield. Liz Sivesind was scheduled to fly with Steve Shaffer but unable to go this month. The trip down was very smooth and quick; we had tailwinds of 24 to 27 knots at 9,500'. The entry at Ensenada was time consuming, with customs and immigration officials earning their pay but causing us a delay that was unnecessary. It seems they have something new each time we land there. The patient count was lower than we might have expected; perhaps because we didn't have dentists this month. The providers saw 66 patients, one of whom had been attacked by a pit bull and suffered extreme wounds to his face and other parts of his body. His face was completely disfigured. His nose was almost entirely gone. The photos I took of him while Dr. Haining was examining him are almost beyond description. Our two UCD med students, Jocelyn Mansfield and Emily Klein, worked with Dr. Thompson and Mariana Locke, FNP. They are both in their fourth year as students. It was a pleasure to have them with us, and a good opportunity for them. Pilot Mark Rudolph was on his first flight to the clinic. It was great to have him along. He's a good pilot and a real gentleman, one who can give as well as he takes of the humor we share. We're looking forward to having him with us again soon. We went to Jardines for dinner Friday night and to Cielito Lindo on Saturday evening. The food and restaurant there were much improved since we were there last. Several of us went to see Martha Rodriguez at her new home high on the bluff overlooking the valley. The place is a mansion; quite a contrast to the other homes we've seen there. She greeted us warmly and showed us through her home. It was impressive. The flight north was uneventful with some headwinds. We all arrived home safely.

Jocelyn Mansfield — October 11, 2011 (42 .20111007 )

Here is a bit about my first trip: I was amazed by the connection that the Sams had made with the local community. The local people clearly value the clinic and workers very highly, and the volunteers on my trip seemed to find genuine fulfilment in providing care. I was amazed to hear the stories about interesting cases from over the years, and how Sams have overcome cultural and language boundaries, and even crossed borders with patients to find optimal care. They are able to do so much with such limited resources. In addition to the fulfilling and medically fascinating experience at the clinic, I was excited to embark on my first trip to Mexico, my first flight on a private plane (and landing on a dirt runway), and my first lesson in global health. Waking up to the sound of waves crashing in a beautiful location is not bad either!

Robert Golomb — August 21, 2011 (40 .20110812 )

I am a 53-year-old emergency room doctor. I went to San Quintin with the Flying Sam’s from 8/12 to 8/14/2011. This was my first ever experience doing volunteer work as a physician. The trip down and back was very smooth. I was very impressed with the skills and professionalism of the pilot, Steve Shaffer. I have never landed on a dirt airstrip before. It was smoother than many landings I have experienced in larger planes. On the approach I could see the greenhouses where vegetables are grown, but could not truly appreciate the scale until on the ground. The manual labor required to assemble the structures, then grow and harvest the tomatoes and cucumbers is arduous and backbreaking. All of this done by the patients that I saw the next day. Next time I am in Safeway, I will have more gratitude for the fresh produce. The clinic was a real eye-opener. Most of the patients I saw were not ill. They seemed very pleased to be examined by me and were grateful when I told them all was well. Also liked the vitamins and ibuprofen! In Berkeley, where I practice, the expectation (even for very minor pain) is more on the order of Vicodin. I was introduced to 2 young children with severe congenital heart defects. I do not think that in my career I have ever heard such significant murmurs. In America, both would have had corrective surgery at an early age. I saw a 4-year-old girl with a severe flexion contracture of the fingers of her left hand. This was a result of a burn from 2 years ago! In America, even if uninsured, this girl would have had corrective surgery to repair this. I did not know what to say or do. Fortunately, “Dr. Bob” had a connection with the Shriner’s, and hopefully they can take care of her. It was a pleasure and privilege to work with all of the volunteers associated with the Flying Sam’s. A true labor of love! I plan to go back to San Quintin, and hope to have the opportunity to do even more extensive medical volunteer work in the future. Robert Golomb MD

Andrew Rong — August 22, 2011 (39 .20110812 )

The clinic experience was unforgettable. From the time I stepped into the 4 seater when we took off from Sacramento to when we touched Down in Los Pinos, I was unsure what to expect. The next day in clinic however, proved to be exhilarating. I was able to listen to aortic stenosis, perform physical exams on people with unique pathologies, and most importantly, help the people of the region with their medial ailments. The people who chose to fly down with me were also great company and passionate about clinic. It was an unforgettable experience and I hope that everyone who is interested in international aid try it out! Best, Andrew Rong

Alex Golomb — August 14, 2011 (38 .20110812 )

My Flying Samaritans Experience — My name is Alex Golomb and I am a senior Chico State university. I am majoring in environmental health and have enjoyed every year so far at Chico State. I have taken a strong interest in joining the Peace Corps after I graduate. This was one of the main reasons why I chose to work with the Flying Samaritans this past weekend. I know that I only volunteered for one day and the Peace Corps requires a two year commitment but I felt that this experience would be a taste of what the Peace Corps might be like. When we landed at the clinic I was very eager to see what it looked like and was happy to set up the equipment for the busy day ahead of us. It was obvious that supplies were limited and the equipment was somewhat antique but that did not matter when came to helping our patients. The language barrier was one of the toughest aspects of this trip. I know a little bit of Spanish from high school but I could say that I spoke little to no Spanish to the patients. However, every patient was more than happy to wait for one of the translators to assist me. This trip has motivated me to learn fluent Spanish, which I hope to achieve soon. The most memorable and rewarding part of the trip was when I was able to help a very young girl who was very scared and traumatized by the clinic visit. The look in her eyes reminded me how terrified I was of the doctor when I was a little boy. I was able to get this girl to stop crying and start laughing by making a few faces and funny noises. I could tell that the mother appreciated what I did because it helped her relax as well. Overall, I had a great time with the Flying Samaritans and gained a new appreciation for everything that I have access so easily, especially health care.

Sr Bilito — August 14, 2011 (37 .20110812 )

Steve Shaffer flew Joe Zachwieja, Bob Haining, Robert Golomb & his son, Alex. Steve Gorman flew Phil Summers, Andrew Rong & and Katherine Crabtree. Joel flew Pam Polk, Suzanne Smith, Frank Marquez & me. Nice flight down, especially for the first-time fliers.. Ensenada charged us $25 for visas, good for 180 days. Aviation gas was $5.97 per gallon ($5.65 per gallon at Calexico). We arrived in San Quintin to a welcoming committee of a bazillion flies (usual for August). Friday night, we drove to the Old Mill for a good dinner, but there was a lot of waiting for the dinners to be served. We agreed that it wasn't worth the extra driving to get there. Saturday, Joel & Frank delivered scholarships to 20 primary students ($150 each) and $250 each to five secondary students. Frank & Patti Rabe did an outstanding job formulating a spread sheet which is quite detailed and will be used next year. Patti did not arrive until 1 p.m. and decided to just return home without helping us. Claudia's daughter (also named Claudia ) did a great job filling out the patient entry forms, so we paid her $10. Unfortunately, Alma Rendon, our patient with rheumatoid arthritis, did not show up, so we couldn't determine her status. Last month, her hemoglobin was only 6.6, so Bob Haining started her on iron tablets to treat her anemia; we were eager to see how she was responding, so it was very disappointing when she didn't show up. Flor was there, unchanged in height and weight, but still very active. Juan Carlos also appeared and together with Flor, we presented two, very unusual, congenital heart patients to our three medical students and Dr. Robert Golomb (an ER physician). Our clinic was very busy with people showing up to collect scholarships followed by a visit for medical treatment. The three med students were very eager to see patients & presented them to our medics for consultation. Dr. Golomb was able to teach us how to utilize the ultrasound, so great excitement there. Pam Polk was kept busy finding things for us & Suzanne Smith was kept busy taking vital signs. Alex busied himself doing odd jobs like installing a fly catcher with rank-smelling bait which really attracted the flies. We closed clinic at 4 p.m., then sat around the hotel veranda imbibing. Saturday night, most of us went to Jardines, where Bob Haining paid for all our dinners. The students went downtown for street tacos. We left the hotel at 8 a.m. this morning & arrived in Calexico where it was over 90° a little after 9 a.m. We then flew home safely, arriving in Sacramento around 2:30 p.m.

Valerie Yuan — July 14, 2011 (34 .20110708 )

From flying in 5-seater plane for the first time to exploring the streets of San Quintin and eating "street" tacos, my trip with Flying Samaritans has been one of the most exciting volunteer trips I have ever been on. I had such a great time working with doctors, nurses, dentists, and volunteers who have dedicated so much of their time to the clinic in San Quintin. Seeing how much they cared for the people of Mexico was encouraging for me as I continue in my studies and learn how to be an empathetic doctor. I was able to apply much of what I learned in my first year of medical school and was able to see diagnoses that I wouldn't normally encounter in the United States. I definitely hope to go on another Flying Samaritans trip soon!

SR Bilito — July 13, 2011 (36 .20110708 )

Good report. Unfortunately the CD of Juan Carlos’ study is in a format requiring techie maneuvers ( downloading VOR’s from Google) then extra changes. Sebastian then burned a disc which I will take to Sacramento with me but will still require a techie’s guidance. Dr Rubio sent an interpretation of all of the defects, but it is in Spanish. I’ve forwarded it to Haining but he is not available at this time, so my friend who taught Spanish interpreted some of the dxs (unfortunately he is not familiar with medical terminology). Juan has a subaortic membrane which impedes outflow and in essence causes severe aortic stenosis. The valve is already calcified and he has significant left ventricular hypertrophy which could lead to irreversible cardiac failure. Will keep you informed as I seek help for Juan Carlos.

Pamela Fallo — July 12, 2011 (35 .20110708 )

Steve Gorman flew Justin Sherrill, Debbie Marino, Joe Zachwieja; Steve Shaffer flew Bob Haining, Pam Polk, Bruce Hultgren, Matthew Hager. They stopped for lunch at Catalina Island on the way. Joel Prosser flew Mark Abel, Paige Jeffs, Valerie Yuan, Pam Fallo. All 3 checked in at Ensenada with varying results. The pilots were required to visit every desk they had, paying varoius fees along the way. We got hit for the $26/person visa fee, and some other pilot fee...then the agent bluntly required a mordida. Pam realized after she got there that she inadvertantly packed an expired passport. The agent kept repeating "Don't worry..I'll take care of you", which was probably another veiled request for money. We arrived at SQ to find out the generator wire on Joel's plane had come loose. Samuel instantly found him a mechanic and it was fixed in no time. The group split up for Fri. dinner. Some stayed at the hotel restaurant, others went for street tacos and a few to Jardines. Saturday clinic served 90 medical patients, 36 dental patients, 40 optometry patients and 16 glasses were dispensed. Steve Gorman flew a 10 year old patient, Juan, his mom, and Alfredo to Ensenada for a cardiac workup which showed a serious problem needing surgery. They provided the echo pictures, a written report and CD which Bill McDavid will shop around California in an attempt to get care for him. Samuel drove Alma, a rheumatoid patient to town for blood tests. She was quite anemic from her arthritis medicines. Her hemoglobin had been 9.2; was 6.9 on Saturday, which didn't look good. But it turned out she was 6.7 on 6/15 , so is currently stable. She felt much better, was gaining some motion of the jaw, and had even been able to eat some. After a long day the group again split up for dinner. Justin , Matt and others decided to try something completely different. They found a street stand serving some kind of brains, pork stomach and intestines, which they described as "actually really good". Those of us that are more sane went to Jardines. Everyone wished Justin well as he goes off to UCLA. Samuel was trained by him to assist in the dental clinic. We discussed the possibility of dropping in to Santa Monica airport from time to time to pick up Justin. He hopes to drive down in September with Hannah and a friend. Steve Gorman's plane had reservations to stop for lunch at Harris Ranch on the way home.

Tim Itoi — June 15, 2011 (28 .20110610 )

I had a blast on my first trip down to San Quintin with the Flying Samaritans. The best way I can summarize the experience is that it is “fun with purpose” which, in my mind, is the most enjoyable kind. Joel Prosser invited me along as a new pilot to fly right seat in his Cessna 205. It was great for me to learn the ropes navigating through the busy airspace of the LA basin, clearing customs into Mexico at Mexicali (while mostly avoiding international incident), and finding the airstrip in San Quintin. More importantly, Joel got me up to speed on where to find the best fish tacos and pastries in town too. Experiencing the clinic first hand really made an impact on me. The people who rely on this clinic clearly are in need and it is inspiring to see the amount of dedication and selflessness the medical providers are able to give to them. The trip home was the perfect ending to a great weekend. Once we climbed past the marine layer fog on the coast the skies cleared up as we continued over the peninsular range to Calexico International Airport to re-enter the US. Here we had our passports checked and said our goodbyes with Mike and crew in his Bonanza. After departing Calexico it was smooth air and clear skies the rest of the 3.5 hour trip home to Sacramento Executive Airport in Joel’s capable plane carrying us aloft at 10,500’ and cruising at 140 kts. All this to say, “I’m hooked and am looking forward to the next one.”

Jake Gire — June 17, 2011 (33 .20110610 )

I had a great time traveling to Baja with the flying samaritans! Working in clinic gave me a chance to continue improving my spanish, work on my interview skills, and was a rewarding way to spend my Saturday. Evenings were filled with amazing food from the local restaurants and friendly people to talk and have a few cervezas with.

Paige Jeffs — March 13, 2011 (27 .20110311 )

Our dental clinic was well staffed this trip. Mark Abel is a great asset at the clinic. During the last clinic, a fairly young patient presented himself missing several front teeth. Since we don't have a lab, Mark was generous enough to take an impression and send it to his lab for processing. He delivered the dental prosthesis on Saturday to a very grateful patient. We had great help in the clinic with Justin and Dana serving as chairside assistants, and Mike Worth helping out with sterilization. Our chemiclave sterilizer was acting up a bit and may be on its last leg. Al said he will guide us in obtaining a replacement. Dr. McDavid helped Mark with a patient who needed to be sedated. We saw 39 patients between us. 95% of our patients needed extractions, with one of them being a surgical extraction. The X-ray unit is a tremendous asset, as before it was acquired, we were doing a lot of guesswork. We can now diagnose with 100% certainty. (Thanks Al Rabe.) We met a group of Tijuana dental students at the hotel. As we became acquainted with them, we invited them to visit our dental clinic Friday. They were impressed with our clinic, and we were impressed with them. With Al Rabe's approbation, we gave them some needles, toothbrushes, toothpaste, anesthetic, and dental prevention pamphlets. They were thrilled. One of the dental students (a senior) is planning on taking the dental board examination in California and it is his desire to practice there. We exchanged contact information and we plan to stay in close touch with him, and help him as much as we can in realizing this dream.

Laurie Pittman — March 28, 2011 (32 .20110311 )

This was my first trip volunteering with Flying Samaritans, and our trip to the San Quintin Clinic was amazing! I met fellow volunteers, Fred Martinez and Dr. Bill McDavid, on Friday at the Placerville Airport and I instantly felt welcome. As we took off over the green foothills with great visibility, a song played on the radio that immediately put words to my experience "... searching for a purpose to this life you've come to know, open your eyes to see through the wall of fear ...show me something glorious, show me something glorious...." Dr. Ryan Thompson joined us after we landed at the Calaveras airport. Our pilot, Mike Worth, was fantastic, and as one who has flown professionally, I can not over emphasize how safe I felt flying with him. My favorite meal was our casual dinner at Street Tacos and the soft served ice cream cones enjoyed on the sidewalk of San Quintin. On Saturday morning, I met hard-working people from medical, dental, optical, Rotarian and interpreter backgrounds who converged at the clinic to provide necessary services to enhance the health of the residents of this Mexican coastal community. The work we did was very rewarding as the citizens of San Quintin have limited health care options. For example, a young pregnant woman was placed on antibiotics for a urinary tract infection which left untreated could have resulted in complications for the mother and baby. As an RN and a parent with young children I am thrilled to have a flexible volunteer experience like this available and look forward to more trips with Flying Samaritans.

Sr. Bilito — March 13, 2011 (29 .20110310 )

Mike Worth flew his maiden voyage to clinic piloting his beautiful A36. His passengers were Fred Martinez, Ryan Thompson, Laurie Pittman & me. Steve Gorman flew Gayle Beasley, Bruce Hultgren & Mark Abel. Joel Prosser flew his son, John, Justin Sherrill, Paige Jeffs & Joe Zachwieja. Al & Patti Rabe drove down as did Lena Trinh & and Dana Duey. The Rotarians of North Sacto. drove in Louie’s motorhome which carried his wife, Becky, Carroll Dudley, et al. The cabinets which they installed are magnificent, with enough room for all of the containers. Carroll hired Guillermo to spray another coat of lacquer in the near future. We were visited by a contingent of dental students whom Paige took on a personal tour. Saturday morning, a group from the medical school in Tijuana visited us; we hope to meet again in October. The highlight for them was meeting Flor and listening to her heart; Flor, of course, enjoyed all of the attention. Our illustrious optometry department – Bruce Hultgren, Steve Gorman & Fred Martinez – did vision tests and ordered 21 pairs of glasses. Joe examined one of the medical students and gave her instructions on how to order her glasses. The dental clinic was going full bore with Dana and Justin assisting, and Mike Worth and John sterilizing the instruments. Paige will file a separate report. The medics saw 80 patients with Ryan leading the charge. Patti’s 18-month-old boy had an abdominal abscess which he incised and inserted a drain into. Ryan also saw an eight-month-old baby who only weighed 11 lbs. and appeared malnourished; the mother said the baby had chronic diarrhea. The mother apparently suffered a very difficult pregnancy. Ryan emphasized that an intensive workup is necessary and hopefully, her husband is employed and, therefore, the baby is eligible for social security. He asked the mother to return next month for Bob Haining to examine. Laurie Pittman & Gayle Beasley were kept busy doing patient vital signs, with Becky assisting on the surgery on Patti’s infant. The Tucson group sent a pilot and three helpers to deliver to us four boxes of meds collected from a pharmacy which had closed. These meds included analgesics, antibiotics and some asthma meds. Many thanks go to them! It is with great pleasure to announce that the young man whom we have nurtured along by supporting him in his training to become a pilot, advising him on how to assist in providing dental care and not the least of which, teaching him how to drive a car with a standard transmission, has been admitted into the class of 2015 at UCLA . . . Justin Sherrill. Nice going, dude! We fought head winds of 20 mph, but arrived home safely this afternoon.

Pam Polk — February 13, 2011 (30 .20110211 )

Steve Gorman flew Cindy Ashmead, Fred Martinez, and Pam Polk to San Quintin on Thursday and stayed at our usual hotel for the evening. Steve Shaffer flew Bruce Hultgren, Phil Summers, Erin Osiecki, and Justin Sherrill to San Felipe, cleared customs and spent the night at a local hotel. We met the next morning at Laguana San Ignacio for whale watching. The weather was clear and brisk. We saw whales breaching, flipping their flukes, and relaxing in the beautiful bay. After the boat ride, we returned for a fresh fish lunch at the launch site. Steve Gorman's group flew to Loreto for fuel and returned to San Quintin later that afternoon. Steve Shaffer flew his plane directly to San Quintin and had street tacos that night. Due to Bill McDavid's plane problems, he and his group were unable to fly to clinic. This left us without a doctor. The Tucson group graciously provided us with Chuck Schroll, MD. With Chuck and our two medical students, Phil and Erin, we had physician coverage. Justin, Pam, and Cindy checked vitals and blood sugars, and coordinated the clinic flow for 70 patients. Bruce and Steve Gorman did about 30 eye exams. Steve Shaffer and Justin re-installed wooden covers for the windows on the two main clinic doors. Steve wanted to remind everyone to turn the screws "finger tight" to prevent stripping them again. Flor and her mom, along with many of our regular patients, had exams and medication renewals. We also saw a 24 year old woman in a wheel chair with a thoracic spine injury who had a subsequent paralysis. Pam will send Bob pictures and a description of the orthotics that were recommended by a local clinic. Judy Austin from the Tucson chapter would like to donate medications that were given to their chapter after a pharmacy closure. Pam will get the list of medications and send to Debbie and Bill for review. We returned to the hotel for a fun evening of pool, dancing, margaritas, and dinner.

Sr. Bilito — January 09, 2011 (31 .20110107 )

Three planes went to clinic: Mike Gaisford flew Debbie Marino & Justin Sherrill, I flew Fred Martinez, Paul & Alexander Kulikov, and Steve Gorman flew Paige Jeffs, Mark Abel & a 1st-year U.C. Davis medical student, Sara Hashley. Gaisford and I arrived at Ensenada around 2 P.M. with broken clouds, but an easy landing. The runway in San Quintin had been smoothed out nicely after the rains. There were 5-10 knot tailwinds all the way down. The Immigration Officer insisted that everyone have a visa, but there was no charge. Gorman landed at Tijuana where multiple charges were leveled; each passenger paid $27 for a visa. Steve was also required to buy one and also had to pay an additional charge of $5 for paying in U.S. dollars. In addition he paid a landing fee and had to taxi to the fuel truck for fuel. It was cold and only four of us went for street tacos Friday evening; everyone else went to Jardine’s for indoor comfort. There were only 46 medical patients, but it was a good day because it gave Sara plenty of time to practice her Spanish and evaluate her patients. I felt she did an excellent job questioning her patients and only occasionally needed help in translation. Justin is ready to take his check ride for a private pilot exam, but the fog is delaying it. He didn’t know how to drive a car with manual transmission, so he took a few lessons and is now able to do it. We were discussing how there aren’t many stick shifts anymore and wondered how many young people haven’t mastered it. The Kulikov brothers taught a group of children and adults how to brush their teeth, and they promised to forward photographs. The eye guys, Fred & Steve, examined 22 patients, placed four new orders, gave out six reading glasses and found two patients needing care for their cataracts. Paige, Mark & Justin treated over 30 dental patients and Paige will provide a report. As we were preparing to leave San Quintin this morning, one from the Arizona group requested a splint and crutches for one of their members who injured an ankle. Nurse Rachet (aka Debbie) provided them with the necessary equipment. Bill Hunt: Please let us know how she is doing. We flew home with 10-30 knot headwinds and the valley was fairly solid with fog until we reached Sacramento. Fred and I tried to get into Placerville, but had to land in Cameron Park where Sue picked us up. Mike Gaisford was able to land at Calaveras and Steve at Lincoln. Such is flying In the winter time.

Sr Bilito — December 12, 2010 (26 .20101210 )

Nice flight down at 238 knots in Jerry Alves’ Baron (274 mph). He flew Pam Fallo, Bruce Hultgren & me, picking Bruce up at Concord and Pam & me at Mather (Placerville Airport was below minimums). We arrived over Ensenada, but were unable to see the runway, so went to Tijuana. They charged Bruce & Pam $23 for a visas; Jerry was not charged because he is a pilot and I had an old one which was accepted. When flying over Ensenada at 2:30 p.m., we could see the runway. The moral to this story: Do not try Ensenada until after 2 p.m. Steve Gorman, who picked up Debbie Marino & Pam Polk at Calaveras, arrived at clinic just as it was getting dark. Joe Zachwieja drove down with his daughter, Hannah, and Lena Trinh. Patti, Alfredo, Guillermo & Valentin were given their Christmas bonuses of $50 each, which brightened their day on Saturday. Saturday’s clinic was brief; we only saw 63 patients. Joe, Bruce & Steve performed 19 eye exams, gave 11 eye prescriptions and 4 reading glasses. Last weekend, eight buses transported most of the workers home for Christmas; they probably will not return until March. Bruce hung the banner which Paige Jeffs sent, informing mothers not to give their children sugared soft drinks because of the cavities they cause. Coincidentally, Joe Zachwieja brought 100 toothbrushes & 50 tubes of toothpaste; Hannah and Lena gave lessons to the children on how to brush their teeth. Lena Trinh donated $100 to our treasury to be used as needed. $150 from a scholarship which was never picked up will be returned to the treasury. Jerry Alves donated another $525 to our organization . . . thanks, big guy! Unfortunately, Guillermo has not finished painting the clinic. I discussed this with him and requested he have it finished by the time of the January clinic. We all returned home safely on Sunday.

Sr Bilito — November 15, 2010 (24 .20101112 )

Nice flight down with 20-30 knot tailwinds. Gerry Alves flew Joel Prosser, Fred Martinez & myself. Mike Gaisford flew Debbie Marino, Jared Thompson & Ryan Thompson. Steve Gorman flew Paige Jeffs, Justin Sherrill & Bruce Forrest. Steve Shaffer flew Art Tomaszewski, Liz DaCosta & Joe Zachwieja. Joel wants to start the clinic earlier, but I pointed out that Patti, who does intake, arrives sometime after 9 o’clock – this clinic, she actually arrived at 9:25. He was going to discuss this with her when she arrived, but she was carrying her sixth child (a 3-month-old baby), so he ended up cooing with the baby. So much for correcting late arrivals; Joel has a soft heart. Our medical clinic was again rather sparse and we finished around 3:30 p.m. The dental clinic was going full bore all day (see Paige’s email). The eye clinic composed of the famous trio of Zachwieja, Martinez & Gorman continue to examine, prescribe and fit glasses to the needy. They continue to take orders for new glasses and have now found a business which constructs glasses for even less than before. I worry that the local optometrists will hear about this competition and try to shut them down. We ate at Jardine’s Friday night and ate street tacos on Saturday night. The Tucson chapter had originally planned to hold clinic one week earlier this month due to concerns about room availability at our hotel, but then changed and decided to come one week after our clinic. However, they ultimately cancelled entirely. Steve Shaffer held a meeting for our pilots to discuss procedures for departing Ensenada in adverse weather. We hypothesized that the group from San Luis Obispo departed in fog and immediately flew direct toward San Quintin. This placed them toward the mountain where the impact occurred. Several of our pilots tried to locate the crash site, but were not able to identify it. Guillermo was contracted to paint our buildings inside and out for $400. On this visit, I asked him why he had not finished painting he exterior and he said he had exhausted his paint supply ($40 per gallon). He estimated that he would need two more gallons, so I gave him the final $100. He promised to complete the painting by December. We returned on Sunday with some very rough weather out of Calexico, but all returned safely; I don’t believe anyone used a barf bag. A big welcome to Gerry Alves as a new pilot flying a luxurious Baron; it was a pleasure flying with him. Hopefully, his Chief Pilot (aka Mrs. Alves) will allow further flights with us. He has donated $525 to our treasury . . . thanks, senor!

Paige — November 14, 2010 (25 .20101112 )

The dental clinic was staffed with Art Tomazsewski, Justin Sherrill, and myself. We saw 35 patients. We were a bit hindered in our ability to see more in that we were short staffed. Justin tried to serve as translator, sterilizer, and assistant. It was not sufficient, but we take what we can get. More than half of our patients were children, and nearly all of them had multiple decayed teeth. This time we tried our best to educate the mothers as to the cause of dental decay. I would say that none of the mothers knew of the connection of a heavy sugar diet and tooth decay. I am interested in developing a patient education program, and will look further into it. Billito sedated two of our patients, which was appreciated. We extracted 44 teeth, and did 5 composite fillings. I did take down my office ultrasonic cleaner, but it was not used as we had our hands full with priority treatment. We had to turn down some patients at the end of the day, as we had run out of energy. But it was a very fulfilling clinic. Dream List: To be effective, we need someone to sterilize our instruments (it runs all day). We would welcome help at the end of the clinic with clean up from anyone who finishes early on the medical side. (Just a suggestion). It takes us a good hour or more to clean up after clinic. Al, would you support this notion? New curtains coming to the dental clinic in January, courtesy of Ann Jeffs. Ok, that's all.

Sr Bilito — August 15, 2010 (23 .20100813 )

Steve Gorman flew Wanda Truong, Bruce Hultgren & Joe Zachweija. I flew Fred Martinez, Pam Polk & Pavel Kulikov; nice flight down and back. Another encounter ensued at Ensenada regarding purchasing visas at $27 each. We protested and were allowed to proceed with the admonition that next month, we would have to purchase them . . . groan. Another attempt was made to control our exit from Mexico with issuance of an official form for us to hand to the departing Mexican authorities. We left without stopping, exiting at Calexico. We saw 77 medical patients with the usual variety of problems. The optical people saw 39 new patients and delivered 25 pairs of glasses; an additional three pairs of Harry Potter glasses, eight reading glasses & took orders for eleven new pairs of glasses. The clinic now has a new color. When asked what color to paint it, I said keep the same color. I didn’t realize that the original color had faded, so now we have a real Mexican-colored building. Guillermo has given us a bid to paint all of the outside borders with primer, then yellow paint for a cost of $200. He also bid $200 to paint the inside of the medical clinic. The Board will vote on these two bids. Friday, all eight of us ate at the outside taco stand in San Quintin: 43 tacos for $20. Saturday night, we ate at the newly re-opened Old Mill Restaurant; it doesn’t seem to be any different from Jardines. Next month we will vote on which we prefer to eat at.

Sr Bilito — July 11, 2010 (22 .20100709 )

Steve Gorman flew Debbie Marino, Paige Jeffs & Pam Fallo. Steve Shaffer flew Joe Zachwieja, Art Tomaszewski, Liz DaCosta & Justin Sherrill. I flew Bob Haining, Pam Polk and Sue McDavid. Steve G. took the dental X-ray machine in his plane without any difficulty from the customs officials in Ensenada. Unfortunately, there was a glitch in its operation, causing the dental team to bring it back for further evaluation. Head winds up to 35 knots flying down followed by IFR conditions going into Ensenada, but we made it. —— We ate at Jardine's on Friday night with good food as usual. The dental building roof was completed, leaving much clean-up of dust before clinic on Saturday. Paige will write a review of dental efforts; he and Art worked busily with help from Justin and Guillermo. Our medical crew consisted of Pam Fallo, Liz DaCosta, Bob Haining & myself; we saw 110 patients with a wide array of disorders. After the last heavy rains, materials had been quickly thrown into bins to protect them from further damage and the supplies were in terrible disarray. Debbie asked Sue McDavid to organize them, and she spent all day rearranging & labeling so that in the future, we can quickly locate what we need. Oscar, foreman of the roofing crew, dropped by to ask if we needed anything other than painting, which will be done this week. They have covered the outside waiting area, which shields the patients from sun and rain. Saturday night, Joe Z. took several of us to downtown San Quintin for "street tacos" -- delicious. —— Joe Z. has now established a new enterprise called the "Charismatic Eye Salon", fitting patients with eyeglasses from a catalog having nice styles, sending their eye corrections to the firm & the glasses are delivered the next month. He did 44 eye exams and gave 12 reading glasses, 5 Harry Potter glasses & 27 new orders for glasses; his fame is definitely spreading. Regarding the scholarship applications, the date listed for returning them was dated incorrectly for Monday, July 12th. Pam Polk will decide when we will award the recipients, probably in September. —— Thinking it would be too hot to exit through Calexico as the other two pilots did, I choose Tijuana-big mistake. The Immigration Officer assessed visa fees totaling $69, plus a $9 landing fee, plus much aggravation. So much easier leaving through Calexico, but you must leave very early in the morning during summertime. It was 90 degrees at 0930 this A.M

Sr Bilito — June 13, 2010 (21 .20100611 )

Steve Gorman flew Bruce Hultgren & Joe Zachwieja (Fred Martinez did not go due to the death of his son). I flew Joanne Shope, Debbie Marino& Bob Watson. Moderate turbulence was predicted for the flight down, but was tolerable with 15-20 knot tailwinds (returning was awful, but more on that later). There was a solid overcast, making it difficult to enter Ensenada except for a few holes. Steve flew under the overcast going to San Quintin (smart pilot) and I flew above the clouds. I had to fly the 150 radial from the SQN VOR and descend through the clouds to 2000 ft. when we saw the ground. At the bar Friday night, we met five men who come to dig clams each year; one of them is a plastic surgeon in Orange County, who has offered to help us – great guy. Met up with Bill Hunt who flew down with David Bryman, an ER doc in Tucson, and they brought two first-year med students with them. We put the students to work in the clinic, which they enjoyed, and both want to come back to clinic in August. Alfredo called Oscar Garcia who is superintendant of construction supplies for the Rodriquez Corp. and we drove oveto meet with him, explaining how all of the dental equipment was removed so that the roof could be replaced. He immediately came to clinic along with Ramon, the roofing foreman, and they measured and hope to start on Monday. Oscar has a visual problem, so Joe and Bruce examined him and have ordered some upscale glasses for him. We examined Ramon, took his BP and reminded him that he promised Paige to fix the roof. Hopefully, things will come to pass and Alfredo will monitor for us. Patti is pregnant again, but she is cheerfully helping us even though she is having some tough times. She was in a car wreck and lost her license, but after some legal wrangling, has gotten the license back. Her car was totaled, but her sister is bringing her another one. Valentin is the caretaker at clinic and lives in a small, windowless room with a cookstove, but no refrigerator. Bruce suggested we give him the small frig in our clinic and Valentin was delighted to have it. Joel, I think you brought it to clinic, but because we didn’t use it, we it to good use in Valentin's room. Hopefully, you don’t mind. We saw 87 medical patients, Joe and Bruce gave 23 eye exams, gave5 "Harry Potter" sets, ordered 8 new glasses and delivered 2 sets to people from last month’s clinic. We departed through Calexico and had the roughest ride back of any trip I have taken to date. In addition, we had 15-20 knot head winds. However, we survived and returned home safely.

Alan Rabe — May 10, 2010 (20 .20100507 )

May 2010 Rotary work project Good morning everyone, A very productive May clinic, I'm sure Bill and Paige will give details for the clinic numbers. The Rotary Club of East Sacamento arrived on Wednesday prior to clinic, with myself and Patti arriving on Thursday. The orignal intent of our work project was to repair/replace the medical clinic roof. This project, however, was completed by the Los Pinos construction crew that did a great job in replacing the medical clinic roof. They are also replacing the entire roof of the Dental Clinc, this week, as well. So the Rotarians: President Carroll Dudley and Lewie Donhost, plus Becky Donhost, Rosemary Gorman and Patti Rabe, cleaned both the medical and dental clinics of debris from the roof repair and previous water damage from the rains. Rosemary, Patti and Becky also reorganized the dental clinic supplies and put away a great deal of new dental supplies donated by the Rotary club (gloves, gowns, masks, other consumable supplies) which should keep the Dental clinic stocked for many more clinics. Carroll and Lewie, along with a lot of help from Guerremo, installed new shelving and cabinets in both clinic areas and after some input from workers in the medical clinic, have identified areas that will become future work projects for either the East Sacramento Rotary, or perhaps another Rotary Club. Because we did not do the roof project, I am proposing to the Rotary Club Board of Directors that the money set aside for the roof project, be now used to help pay for a mobile dental radiographic head.The dentists can image their patients' CC (chief complaint{s}) and will help immensely with their diagnostic capabilities. Also of great importance (at least I think so), we made contact with UABC - Tijuana. They were operating a very large clinic at one of the Los Pinos housing areas that is located just south of the hotel. They operate a clinic at that location biannually utilizing about 150 medical, dental, lab technician students and about a dozen faculty (unbelievably, our clinic schedules normally do not coincide) . We saw their clinic in operation and they also came to visit our facility. After some dialogue, we felt it would be a great to collaborate with each other. They have tentatively scheduled their next clinic to coincide with our November clinic. Dr Renan Gonzalez Ramirez, an attending faculty member, will be commnunicating via email (I exchanged email addresses with him). He will speak to the UABC - Tijuana Dean and get approval for the collaborative arrangements. We gave their dental clinic some of our consumable supplies and they wanted to give us some of their meds which they did not want to bring back to Tijuana. One problem: hotel space when Flying Sams and the school are in town together, there's not enough hotel space at Hotel Santa Maria. Our charter to operate in Baja Mexico says that our healthcare providers are visiting faculty, so this a great opportunity to exercise this obligation; but also make new friends and colleagues and exchange ideas and techniques. Maybe we can all learn something new! This is an exciting development and I hope we can improve on this relationship over the next few months.

Sr Bilito — May 10, 2010 (19 .20100507 )

Steve Gorman flew Mark Abel, Debbie Marino, and Bob Watson. Joel flew his wife Heidi, Paige Jeffs, Justing Sherrill, and Joe Zachweija. Dean flew me, Laureen and Bob Haining. When we stopped at Stockton for Haining, the starter motor housing cracked and made an awful noise. Dean found a crack and a mechanic from Top Gun Repair shop told us we needed a new starter. While Haining and I drove to Skyranch for a new starter, they removed the cowling and the damaged starter. We handed them the starter and shortly thereafter we were on the way to clinic. Great tail wind and we arrived at the hotel four hours after leaving Stockton-6P.M. Great clinic with Rotary International there replacing locks and building new cabinets for the medical area. The dentists saw 40 patients with ten fillings and one cleaning( Ramon foreman of the roofers was given exalted status by Paige). Al Rabe and Patti arrived and hooked up with the medical-dental school from Tijuana and had them visit our clinic Saturday. We were invited to visit their large clinic site and given any meds that we wanted. We plan to meet them again in November. Joe Zachweija has been made a hero as he examined a bus driver who was just about legally blind requiring lenses that we don’t usually stock because the correction is off the wall. He apparently lit up with a big smile when he given his new glasses. The medics saw about 65 patients with the usual variety of problems. Jonathan’s clutch container was without fluid and obviously wouldn’t function. After adding brake fluid it works fine. Be certain to check it for fluid in June. The hotel now offers brunch on Sunday morning from 0700 to 1300hrs for $8. About half of us ate there and Manuel allowed two for the price of one. Rough head winds returning home, but we all made it back.

SR Bilito — April 11, 2010 (18 .20100409 )

Four planes carried 18 people who all had a good time. Nice flight down on Friday, but due to weather concerns on returning Sunday, we elected to return Saturday afternoon; I landed in Placerville about 6:30 p.m. Ensenada presented no problems for us regarding bringing in meds or being asked to pay for visas. An unfortunate event clouded the joy of the day when Gwen Douglass passed out her great cookies, but returning to her purse, discovered her wallet with $300 missing along with driver's license and credit cards. When she arrived at the hotel in San Quintin, she was told her credit cards were found in the trash, but license and money were missing. Only military personnel were present when she lost her valuables. This is the first time that I can recall loss of personal effects by our volunteers. She then produced a check to our organization for $1,000 from one of her friends ( a previous donor). Talk about ups and downs; however, she continued to smile. Sadly, Mary Kay Bush announced that this was her last trip to clinic with her group from Tucson. She is needed at home to care for her mother and several of her older children. She will be missed. The red van, which has served us for years, has now been replaced with the a 12-passenger van which Bruce Hultgren found for us. A phone call was made to Verland asking if he agreed to our disposing of the van. He had no objections, so it was decided to give it to Guillermo. We need to remove our name from ownership to avoid liability. Valentin exposed the broken cover for the septic system behind the clinic and replaced it with a new wooden cover. He agreed to replace the cover with concrete, so he was given $20 for necessary materials. Joe Zachwieja scheduled a meeting with Oscar Murillo who is the head of all maintenance for the Rodriquez company. He and Alfonso Rodriquez surveyed the roof and agreed to replace it and also paint the inside. He explained that their company had purchased the Old Mill and were busy renovating it, so were not able to work on our clinic as promised last month. He plans to replace the roof tomorrow, Monday, April 12. All supplies will be paid for by the corporation. He then plans to paint the interior next week. I explained to him that Martha planned to send men over May 3rd and 4th for removal of the roof, but he seems to feel that his men will do the work tomorrow. Joe believes that he will do as he says and that he has another group of men to work on our clinic, not stopping work on the Old Mill. We will again ask for observation by Alfredo to report progress. Apparently two separate groups descended on San Quintin last week, providing health care with one report indicating they had cared for 400 hundred people. We saw very few patients, so closing our doors at noon Saturday did not seem to impact many patients. We did see Flor who has actually gained a couple of pounds and remains quite active. Her SaO2 was 91%. Angelina appeared (27-year-old with severe rheumatoid arthritis. She did not take her methotrexate as recommended and also her ferrous gluconate and folic acid. She stated that it caused diarrhea. It is distressing to think that we spent $40 for her meds and that it was not used. We can only try to help. The ophthalmic department continues to provide needed help to correct visual defects. Eighteen eye exams, six prescriptions and two reading glasses. Steve Shaffer carried Bruce Hultgren, Bob Haining, Liz Sivesend & Gwen Douglass Joel carried Heidi, John Prosser, Marianna Locke & Gordon Worley Steve Gorman carried Debbie Marino, Pam Polk & Ruth So I carried Fred Martinez & my wife, Sue, as far as Riverside, dropped Sue off, then picked up Lisa Bojorquez (my daughter) & Bob Colgan; returned to Riverside to get Sue again yesterday after dropping Lisa & Bob off. Filed IFR to get into Placerville.

Elizabeth DaCosta — March 17, 2010 (16 .20100312 )

Not sure exactly what to include so I'll just mention a few memorable patients. Please let me know if you need additional information. -15 month old boy with a chronically draining right ear. Has been on oral antibiotics and ear drops intermittently since that time. On exam the boy has thick middle ear fluid that is purulent (infected) on the right. Left looked somewhat better. He had been on Amoxicillin recently. I wanted to treat this kid with something stronger but all we had in the clinic was Amox, Erythromycin and Biaxin. Back in America this kid would have been given a prescription for Augmentin and put on the operating room schedule for tympanostomy tubes. Hearing and language development is critical during this time so getting this problem under control is important. -6 month pregnant woman with complaints of abdominal pain/cramping for past 3 days and worsening. No bloody discharge. Saw a doctor at another clinic who recommended blood and urine test but did not order and asked her to return in a month. Pain was in the left lower belly so acute appendicitis unlikely (phewwww). Constipation? Maybe - she had some stool in rectum. Protein in urine dip but no sign infection. Cervix closed so unlikely premature labor. Unclear the cause but hopefully she will be ok with stool softener and Flagyl for suspected vaginitis. -59 year old female with numbness and tingling in lower legs for a year. Previous visit to doctor had showed pre diabetes. Blood sugar 160 (no food for 6 hours) so possible. common symptom in diabetics (neuropathy). Also complained of small ball in anal area for 3 years. Would drain occasionally. Sure enough, small raised mass with greenish material oozing out. ? Anal fistula. Recomended sitz baths to see if would drain spontaneously. Is anal fistula than surgical problem, which will be nearly impossible to get treated. Third complaint was pain mid back after assault one month ago by stranger. Probably muscular....After clinic we saw this woman hitch hiking on the main road and so we offered a ride and took her home. She gave us cucumbers as thank you gift. -Woman in late 40's with chest pain/shortness of breath and elevated blood pressure. Never treated for high blood pressure or told had any health problems. EKG showed evidence of left venticle hypertrophy. Started her on blood pressure meds, ASA. 44 yo man who claimed to have had heart attack age 41 and now with daily chest burning especially at night. Sounded like possible GE reflux but checked with EKG which possible right sided ischemia. This guy needs a full cardiac workup! Started on ASA and Prilosec. Hope for the best. Several skin rashs, headaches and sore low back. Thank God for the hydrocortisone and Ibuprofen.. Best, Elizabeth

Mike, Paige, Ryan — March 17, 2010 (17 .20100312 )

This month, Bruce and Debbie drove down the new 12-passenger van to the clinic. Joe assisted Bruce to purchase 1-year’s worth of insurance. Much thanks to goes to Dana, Derek, Joe, Bruce and Debbie who worked Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday to inventory and discard damaged supplies, mop up several inches of water, and dry out the clinic after recent rains once again was a problem due to the leaking roof. Oscar Rodriguez has now offered to replace the clinic roof and paint the inside of the clinic. This is to be done within two weeks. The Rotary Club should continue with their plans in the event that something changes. Clinic began many days prior to Saturday. This is often the case as plans need to be finalized. This clinic was no exception, with changing weather, airplane preparations, people and locations all quite fluid. Dr. Ryan Thompson wanted to include a trip to see the annual stop of the California grey whales in Laguna San Ignacio, since his daughter Emily – a busy college senior in Santa Barbara – would be available. With some flight planning and some good weather, we were able to pick up Emily at SBA and head down a day early – Thursday. Debbie Marino was already there advocating some runway repairs that were completed just prior to our arrival. The strip was super flat, although still wet and soft due to recent rains. We had a great time with many mother and calf combinations, spy-hopping and one close encounter with a giant tail fin right under the boat. Saturday held the usual clinic business with two dentists providing greatly needed care. The medical and optometry team worked their special skills as well. Upon leaving clinic (well after dark), we encountered a patient who was hitch-hiking home. We picked her up but she couldn’t describe where she lived. After driving all the way to the north end of San Quintin, she finally told us where to turn. She gave us cucumbers (Don’t tell customs). Since we were all the way up north, we stopped for dinner at the restaurant Santa Isabella - great food and a nice place. The trip home was long due to a strong head wind, but clear weather and a beautiful flight. -Mike On the flight down, Steve and Art departed Santa Rosa into low overcast and rain. They stopped in Stockton to pick up Liz and Justin and the trip from there down to the Ranch was uneventful. Ensenada Customs seems to be getting more and more interested in going though the baggage and we were asked multiple times about any medicine or supplies that were being carried. The runway at the ranch was in very good shape, having been graded the day before. There were however some soft spots that had to be avoided. Steve checked on the condition of the Cielito Lindo runway and found it was in excellent shape. The recent rain had no negative impact on it. If conditions required it, one could land there and walk to the hotel. However, it should be only be used in an emergency because it is not currently certified with the Mexican government. For lunch, the fish tacos were purchased unassembled and overwhelmingly people felt the tacos were better this way than when they are assembled at the stand. On the trip home, Bruce returned in Steve’s plane, having driven down in the new Van. The trip home was only marred by 35 knot winds aloft which provided us a 17 knot headwind component. Other than that is was a beautiful day to be flying. Steve Gorman flew Paige Jeffs, Tom Ashmead, and Cindy Ashmead. We flew at low altitude (to Tom’s delight) the entire way and back to avoid headwinds. Upon arrival into Ensenada, we were required to unpack the entire baggage department and every box of medications was thoroughly examined. We were told that for future trips we need to have an official permit issued by customs in downtown Ensenada in order transport medications across the border. A special thank you to Wally from the Tucson group who was able to inform us enroute to El Rosario that only a few cattle were present at that airfield; hence, no ride waiting for us. He said that the others were able to land at Robertson Ranch without incident. Most of the group went to dinner at Jardins, some stayed at the hotel. We had a productive day in the dental clinic, with a lot of great help. Surprisingly, we ran out of patients around 4:30 pm, even though it was announced on the radio that we would have two dentists. Joe's friends Dana and Derick did chairside assisting. Justin Sherrill assisted our new dentist, Art. Tom Ashmead was right on top of things, keeping our sterilizers going all day. For the first time, we never ran out of essential, sterilized instruments during the day. Tom also was able to replace a burned out dental light for us. Art said he enjoyed working at the clinic, the flight, his fellow Flying Sams, and the food at Jardin's. He was nervous that fish tacos were the only choice for lunch at the clinic, but he found them to be to his liking as well. Hopefully he will return on a regular basis. His wife is also a dentist in Santa Rosa, and Art says she may get involved as well. We saw 44 patients on Saturday (70% extractions and 30% fillings). Justin Sherrill (age 16) again showed amazing maturity and ambition. He has an excellent understanding of dental procedures and instruments. He can pretty much fix anything that breaks. His Spanish is coming along so well that we did not need a translator in the clinic. The real director of dental services is Justin. We just show up and he runs the place.--Paige Ryan and Elizabeth saw 72 patients and remained in the clinic until 6PM. Elizabeth jumped right in and fearlessly started treating patients and did a great job! Many return visitors, some of who had run out of meds due to our absence in February. One patient had very high blood pressure which was symptomatic due to stopping her meds; brought under control while in the clinic. We saw the 14 year old with the old ankle injury back. She had improved somewhat with splinting. The repeat x-ray still shows no fracture and she was placed in an old walking cast for 4 weeks until the next clinic. An MRI and early surgery would have been nice. The bus wreck victims did not come to clinic but are reportedly healing up okay and received 200,000 pesos in settlement from the bus company. I would like to bring some supplies to do KOH smears on rashes for future clinics. I will arrange it if we have a functioning microscope. Do we? --Ryan Saturday night, some of the group went again to Jardins, some went out for street tacos, and some stayed at the hotel for dinner. There have been many improvements at the hotel since under new ownership: live music in the bar Saturday night, softer water, and a fabulous Sunday brunch in the brightly lit beachfront conference room. Sunday’s trip home was without incident—in and out of Calexico in about 15 minutes and again low altitude flying to avoid headwinds.

Sr Bilito — January 11, 2010 (15 .20100108 )

Steve Shaffer flew Paige Jeffs, Mark Abel, and Justin Sherrill. Steve Gorman flew Jarrett and Ryan Thompson and Debbie Marino. I pulled my plane from the hanger, tried to start it and the starter solenoid stuck discharging the battery. My mechanic tapped on the solenoid and it released, but I had to spend about 45 minutes charging the battery. I was due to pick up Bruce Hultgren at Stockton Airport at 1000hrs. Because I was late, he used a public phone (does not have a cell phone) and left me an email telling me he was waiting. We departed Placerville at 1010 and after making two approaches into Stockton with the ceiling at 300 feet but unable to see down the runway, we departed for clinic. Pam Fallo was able to text a message to her daughter who then phoned Sue. She called Bruce’s home and left a message regarding our inability to land. Poor Bruce waited until 1100 hrs before giving up. Joe Zachweija, Dana and Lena met us at Jardines Friday night. Friday afternoon, Paige, Mark, and Justin worked at the dental clinic cleaning out “old stuff” and Fred will forward a picture of it now. There is now a third dental chair which they are using to inject the patients while waiting for their turn in the operative chairs. They had Dana helping on Saturday and treated 45 patients including the first ever root canal. Paige also inserted a “flipper tooth” into a young man, which Bob of Tucson made for him. A real life change for him. Our opticians performed 15 eye exams, fitted six eye glasses, and two reading glasses. One man needed an eight diopter correction which was a “wow” experience for him when he was given his glasses The Medics saw about 81 patients including Angelina who returned to clinic with Pati finding her for us. She is 27 and wheel chair bound from Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis since age five. She has now been started on methotrexate which will hopefully arrest the progression of the disease. There was a tragic bus accident killing 14 people including the mother of two young girls about ages 9 and 7. The girls survived, but one has a possible broken ankle.. Ryan and Pati went to the home of one of the victims who is paralyzed from the neck down, with multiple broken bones. The girls were brought to clinic and Ryan removed sutures from one of the girls. The xrays were of such poor quality that Ryan couldn’t diagnose whether a fracture was present. It was too late in the day to take her for xrays so we’ll see her next clinic. For some reasons , they were never started in school so that is another social problem for them. A mother brought a two year old with both feet turned inward so that he essentially is walking on the ends of his leg bones. We have his name so next clinic we will take him to town for xrays and hopefully present them to Shriners to see if they can help him. Unfortunately the roof has leaked again, so we eagerly await for a new roof in March. We all returned home safely.

Sr Bilito — November 13, 2009 (1 .20091111 )

Nice flight down with Steve Gorman flying Gwen Douglass, Paige Jiffs, and Mark Abel. Mike Gaisford flew Debbie Marino, Justin Sherrill, and Bruce Forrest. I flew Bob Haining, Pam Fallo, and Liz Sivesend. Joe Zachwieja drove down with Dana Duey, Hannah, and Lena Trihn. Ensenada was great because the Immigration Officer was at lunch, so none of us received a visa; however, the Mexican Government has developed a new form with four copies-one to the Commandant, one to Customs, one to Immigration, and one to the pilot. This form must be surrendered upon departure from Mexico. The form is then supposed to return to the issuing agency. Steve exited through Mexicali and they didn’t take his form. Mike exited without stopping at Mexicali, and exited through Ensenada and they were happy to have the form returned to them. So much for the bureaucracy of Mexico. The medics saw 80 patients with Liz awed with the clinic setup. The energizer bunny (Pam) was busy as ever and Haining filing and cutting prosthesis to fit the patients. The eye department examined 30 patients and gave nine pairs of prescription glasses and five reading patients. Joe fitted glasses to one patient and she yelled “wow” when she put them on. The dentists had 43 patients with half extractions and half fillings. Paige examined a young man who had chewing gum wedged in the space of a front missing tooth. He didn’t want it removed, but Paige and Mark have taken an impression and Bob from the Tucson group is going to make a flipper tooth to insert in the space. This will be given to him in January. Gwen Douglass came through again with another large donation of $1,500. This has really been a boost to our treasury because we have not had any fund raisers. Thanks so much, Gwen! Alfredo and I visited a pharmacy in San Quintin and discussed prices with the owner-Sr Ruiz. If we order more than $100 we’ll receive a 33% discount. Debbie will give me a list on Thursday, then I will have Fred Martinez request prices in Spanish (Sr Ruiz only speaks Spanish). After we have negotiated depending on prices, an order will be placed. I am optimistic. Many changes of beautification have occurred at Mission Santa Maria with more to come. Tucson has planned a Christmas Party in the Bar with dinner and a band. Mary Kay will provide us with details in the near future with a choice of meats for the dinner. We all returned safely.

Sr Bilito — October 9, 2009 (5 .20091009 )

Joel flew Heidi, Bruce Hultgren, and Mariana Locke. Steve Gorman flew Gwen Douglas, Alec Hodgins, and Lena Walther. I flew Debbie Marino, Fred Martinez and Joanne Shope. Surprise at Ensenada, Immigration demanded $22 from each of us for a visa. This document is valid for six months if you remain in the country, but once you leave, it no longer is of use. This means we would each pay $22 on every trip to clinic. Fred Martinez and Marianna Locke will visit the Mexican Counselant in Sacramento to see if we can get a waiver. The medics a saw about 75 patients. Angelina who is a 26 year old rheumatoid patient whom we were going to start on methotrexate this clinic, but unfortunately she didn’t show up, and we don’t have her address. Twenty five eye exams with six prescriptions and ten reading glasses. Joe Zachweija brought Lena Trinh and Dana Duey who are two young coworkers. Dana has decided to donate $500 and Pfizer will match his donation. In addition, Gwen Douglas presented a check for $2500 from an electrical firm whom she gave a presentation about our mission in San Quintin and received a great donation. Alec Hodgins had a group of students from his high school assemble 60 back packs which will be distributed to the students who applied for a scholarship, but didn’t qualify. Their names will be announced over the radio in San Quintin and the packs will be distributed from our clinic. New prices at the hotel-$42 room rate for two nights; a pitcher of Margs for $19 instead of $30 and beer $2. It is rumored that the management will soon have a band play on Saturdays. We returned home safely.

Sr Bilito — September 11, 2009 (6 .20090909 )

Joel flew Heidi, Paige and Paige’s daughter, Jodi, as well as Justin Sherrill. Steve Gorman flew Jerrod Thompson & his father, Ryan, & Debbie Marino (she had driven down with Overland, but flew back with Steve). I flew Bob Haining, Pam Polk and Fred Martinez. Head winds down, but smooth. Arriving at Ensenada, the new Customs Officer was there with a new way to do things. First, take your luggage into the terminal and press a button; if the light reads "pass", your luggage is not inspected. However, if it reads red, then the soldiers inspect it. The Customs officer then wanted to see receipts for all of our meds. Fortunately, the Assistant Commandant came to our rescue and explained that we were coming down to Mexico to treat indigent patients, using our own money to pay to fly and also to buy medicines. Fred Martinez will compose a letter explaining our functions and will give a copy to each of our pilots, which should grease our arrivals in the future. Verland and Ben worked repairing the roof along with three men who Martha sent over. Hopefully, this should protect us until next March. Verland also changed the tire on the green van. Verland changed the combination to our lock after Paige Jeffs discovered that six bottles of topical anesthetic were stolen ($25 per bottle) along with many dental instruments, dental bonding material, mucho xylo and Marcaine local anesthetics. It appears that the door to the dental clinic was opened with a screw driver and not with a key. The new combination is 1965. Paige treated 33 patients with help from his daughter, Jodi, as well as Justin and Rotarians Chris Alexander, Becky Donhost and Rosemary Gorman. Debbie moved all of the materials back into the medical area with help from Alfredo, and the clinic is now nicely organized and clean. Carroll Dudley and Lewie Donhost added new wiring with lights in the bathroom, and wiring also for outside lights. The eye men -- Fred Martinez, Jerrod Thompson and Joe Zachweija -- performed 24 eye exams & dispensed 7 eyeglasses and 3 reading glasses. Two interesting cases presented: In October of 2008, a slightly overweight 14-year-old girl twisted her ankle when she fell. Her mother has social security and the daughter had X-rays taken which did not show a fracture, but a separation (torn) of the interosseous ligament which holds the fibula to the tibia. This tear prevents the fibula from performing its lateral function of supporting the foot while walking. As a result, she limps and has done so since the time of injury. She was sent for X-rays on Saturday, which the mother will take to the local doctor; she was told that Flying Sam’s docs reviewed the films and requested that she be sent to Ensenada for repair by an orthopedic surgeon. Stay tuned. The second case involves a 26-year-old female with a 14-year history of rheumatoid arthritis. Her father was qualified with social security and she was treated with methotrexate, a very helpful drug in treating rheumatoid arthritis. Unfortunately, the father lost his job and her treatment ceased. The father could only afford prednisone 5 mgs. Daily which was totally inadequate (she needed 50 mgs. Daily). She presented to clinic in a wheelchair, rigidly afraid to move because the least movement caused incredible pain. The disease has totally removed all cartilage between her bones -- she has bone against bone. Haining and Thompson agreed that she needs to go back on methotrexate which I will start during the October clinic. She has been placed on prednisone 20 mgs. For one week, then 15 mgs. For one week, then 10 mgs. And finally tapered to 5 mgs. She will start on methotrexate 7.5 mgs. Once per week, checking her blood work in October. She has a Hgb of only 5 mg. and I’ll contact an oncologist here in Placerville to find an iron supplement that she can tolerate, to try and raise her Hgb. Haining will try to find a motorized wheelchair for her. She is a pretty, young lady dealt some bum cards. Steve Gorman and I flew to Calexico and upon landing, received a phone call from some schmuck who told us we were in violation crossing back into the U.S. without a bar code number supposedly issued by Homeland Security. We were told to contact the FAA to see if we would be fined for this violation. Neither of us have heard of such a thing. Steve tried to call the FAA, but no one was on duty. Outrageous.

Sr Bilito — August 9, 2009 (7 .20090811 )

Steve Shaffer flew Pam Polk, Jacob Margo, Jacob Muller, and Phillip Muller. Mike Gaisford flew Debbie Marino, Alec Hodgins, and Edwardo Sevilla. I flew Bob Haining, Pam Polk and Elisa Savageau. The Rabes flew to San Diego and rented a car to drive to clinic. Joe Zachwieja and Hannah also drove down. Nice flight down with tail winds. Very windy with mucho dust in San Quintin with many dust devils. Visited Ceilito Lindo for dinner but mosquitoes were so bad that we ate inside. Saturday morning dental clinic started at 0830 and finished at 1600 hrs with Mike and Patti helping Al and Joe lining up those with pain as first patients. He performed brief exams by looking into their mouths for teeth rotted at the gum line. They saw 17 patients. The medics saw 97 patients with Haining fitting prostheses on several amputees. Jacob Muller translated for me and Alfredo and Patti agreed that his Spanish was excellent. Pam Fallo was like the energizer bunny never stopping until we finished around 1600hrs. Jacob hopes to return in the near future. His father Phillip cleaned all day as the dust was pervasive throughout the clinic. Hannah and Steve performed 20 eye exams and dispensed 9 pairs of glasses. One older man was severely myopic (-11 diopters), and since lenses with this severe of a correction cost several hundred dollars, Joe is going to visit Peale Vision to see if they will donate glasses. Also Patti Rabe works for VSP-a vision insurance company, and plans to approach her boss to see if they will donate. Pam Polk and Alfredo awarded 45 scholarships of $100 each. Our Board voted to award 40 scholarships, but when Imelda and Peter Priest saw that five of the recipients had a 9.2 grade point average but we didn’t have the money for them, the two of them gave us $500 toward their scholarships. What spirit. Thanks so much for your donation. The green van has a sick left rear tire, so don’t drive it until Verland replaces it. We usually depart San Quintin, and land at Brown Field. Today Shaffer contacted Tijuana Approach and when he told them that he had departed Ensenada, he was told that he had not and he was required to land at Tijuana. Gaisford and I followed suit. It is a pain in the ass to land at Tijuana, so in the future we will check out at Ensenada. Good flight home

Sr Bilito — July 12, 2009 (8 .20090712 )

Joel flew Heidi, Pam and Jacob Fallo, and Bruce Hultgren. Steve Shaffer flew Debbie Marino, Emily Greig, and friend Sam Benson, and Magdalena Walther. I flew Cindy Ashmead, Bob and his son Nick. Nice flight down. Joe and Hannah drove down as did Verland and Sterling. Friday night we drove to Jardene’s and enjoyed a fine meal. On the way, the accelerator stuck on the red van and Bob Colgan removed an oil cap which was somehow inside the air intake. No problems. Saturday the medics saw 81 patients, Bill Hunt flew Cindy Gerszewski a chiropractor from Tucson who worked at our clinic and treated 28 patients. Joe Zachweija and Bruce Hultgen did 45 eye exams, and filled 14 pairs of eye glasses. Unfortunately Flor had a fever of 102.6 with inflamed tympanic membranes. She takes amoxicillin 125 mg prophylactic ally, so I gave her erythromycin to be taken additionally. Around 2:30 A.M. Sunday, Steve Shaffer and I were sharing a room and an intruder entered saying he was locked out of his room and wanted to try to get into his first floor room by rapelling down from our second floor balcony. We encouraged him to leave post haste. Debbie and Emily stocked all of the boxes of materials that Verland brought down. Debbie had arranged to have the supplies donated. Heidi collected the scholarship applications and will hand them over to Imelda. We all returned safely Sunday. SR Bilito Bob-Antonio did not show for further shoulder evaluation.

Sr Bilito — June 14, 2009 (9 .20090614 )

Steve Shaffer flew Paige Jeffs, Justin Sherrill, Magdelena Walthers, and Pam Fallo. I flew Debbie Marino, Fred Martinez, and Emily Greir. Nice flight down with ten knot headwinds. Leaving the clinic area headed for the hotel, Justin handed the FS sign to be hung on the gate the next morning. When we arrived the next morning, no sign. Apparently the guard thought Justin was giving him the sign as a gift, so he took it home. Valentine will attempt to retrieve it. When we arrived Friday two of the Rodriquez brothers-Alfonso and Arturo, greeted us thanking us for what we do. They apologized for not building us a new clinic across the road and we assured them we are happy where we are and especially pleased with the new bathrooms in the airplane hanger. They gave us a bottle of clear tequila which Fred informed us is excellent quality. We took it to Juan who made us pitchers of Marguerites with it. We went to Ceilito Lindo for dinner, but didn’t wait around for dancing. Saturday, we opened clinic and Patti appeared with a new baby born in May. Her boy friend will be moving in with her next month. Clinic was especially busy as we saw 99 patients including Antonio who is now able to place his left arm over his head after we freed his frozen shoulder last month. Sophia Cruz is a young girl with filamentous lesions on her tongue. Paige looked at it and didn’t feel it was related to her chewing on it. I applied viscous xylocaine 2% and burned the lesions with a cautery. She was given Childrens Motrin for pain-hopefully she will return next month. Flor has gained another one-quarter pound and remains active in spite of only having a single heart ventricle. Paige and Justine treated 40 patients and finished by 5:30. Fred, Joe, and Steve performed 24 eye exams, provided six pairs of glasses, and five reading glasses. Pam Fallo was a human dynamo running between two rooms all day long. That evening she had three Marguerites, ate dinner at Ceilito Lindo and danced up a storm. The red van has been a problem the last two clinics with a dead battery. Saturday, Steve and Guillermo took it to an electrician that he knows and after an exam declared that the system was O.K. and suggested disconnecting the battery before leaving to for home. Steve did this and we eagerly await to check it at July clinic. Emily Greir is a flight nurse in Reno who has joined us. She decided to help Debbie clean the clinic and so all day Saturday, she cleaned. I think because she is from New Zealand her goal in life is to “clean”. We refer to her as Kiwi. Magdelelna Walthers decided to help Justin and Paige so she performed injections to help them along. What a team. Sunday, Steve flew to Calexico, and I chose Brown Field-shot the VOR approach. Checking In with Customs, one of my passengers did not have their passport. The officer took my passport and license and informed me that as the pilot, I am held accountable with possible penalties. He mentioned that with a clean record there might not be any penalties, but that decision will be made by his superiors. Burn incense.

Sr Bilito — May 17, 2009 (10 .20090515 )

Headwinds going to clinic but tail winds coming home. Steve Gorman flew Debbie Marino, Jared and Ryan Thompson. Joel flew Heidi and his son John and Paige Jeffs. I flew Pam Polk, Justin Sherrill, and Bob Haining. Went to dinner Friday night at Ceilito Lindo and all seemed to enjoy their food. There was much dancing and all had a good time. Paige Jeffs and Justin Sherrill started dental clinic at 0830 and worked until 2000 hrs that evening. Haining and Pam Polk helped them clean up afterwards. They saw 44 patients with three fillings, 7 cleanings and the rest extractions. Joe Zachweija performed 20 eye exams and assembled 8 pairs of glassed and one pair of reading glasses. We saw 65 medical patients-the Tijuana School of Medicine help clinic across the highway from us and this may have reduced our patient load. Flor visited and has now gained one # and her mother say she is still very active. Antonio is a patient whom we saw last month with a frozen shoulder. I put him to sleep and Haining manipulated his shoulder-the noise from fracturing the adhesions led Haining to insist on an xray to rule out a fracture-there was no fracture. When Antonio awakened he was in severe pain in spite of my injecting bupivicaine. Haining gave him two Tylenol with codeine and he felt better. He then went in for an eye exam and was fitted with glasses-total care for our patients. A 75 years old man hobbled into clinic with severe back muscle spasms. Alfredo and Guillermo lifted him onto the exam table and I placed an epidural injections. After time he felt better and wanted to know if it was O.K. to work tomorrow? Marty Jansen donated$100 last month thanking us for care given to Antonio who is his employee. This month he donated another $75. A gentleman whom we saw two months ago in clinic arrived with two large boxes of strawberries. Saturday night we went to Jarden’s and upon arrival steam was coming from under the hood of the green van. We left it there and nine of us rode back to the hotel in Joe’s Ford Escape. Joel arranged for Guillermo to tow the vehicle to his mechanic’s shop on Monday-hopefully it’s not too expensive to fix. Sunday morning, Guillermo made smoothies with the strawberries which was very sweet without added sugar. Joel announded that today is Heidi’s birthday, but we did not have a big celebration as in past years. As we get older the joy of another birthday seems less exciting. All returned home safely. Sr Bilito

Sr Bilito — April 19, 2009 (11 .20090417 )

Mike Gaisford flew Pablo Samiento, Justin Sherrill, and Bruce Hultgren. Dean flew his daughter Lauren, Pam Polk, and Bob Haining. Steve Gorman flew Monica Francisco, Fred Martinez, and myself. Joe Zachweija drove down and arrived at 9 P.M.-clean shaven. Great flight down and back with good tailwinds. The clinic lock is causing problems, so Gaisford tried to fix it with WD 40 with some success, but it appears to be worn out. Friday, several of us visited Ceilito Lindo to inspect the bathrooms and ask about the food. We were offered a special house for the ladies to use the rest rooms. We ate there Friday night and all agreed the food was very good. In addition, the band was great and most of us cut a rug-even Justin. Saturday, on the way to clinic, the wiper motor on the red van acted up so Gaisford had to pull the fuse. In addition we ran out of fuel ¼ mile from the station, but Mike drove us for fuel. The clinic was sparsely attended due to ???? Maybe because Easter Sunday fell on the second weekend of the month. We say 69 patients but almost no diabetics or hypertensives. We saw an unfortunate man who worked for Marty at a house in San Quentin, injured his shoulder six months ago, hasn’t used it due to pain and now has a frozen shoulder. We injected it with bupivicaine and Celestone, and gave him ibuprofen to use three times a day until next clinic and Neurontin to help his reflex sympathetic dystrophy as a result of his injury. His boss Marty donated $100 to our clinic in appreciation for our efforts. Justin, Lauren, and Steve packaged our meds, Bruce, Fred and Joe Zachweija performed 33 eye exam, did 4 glasses and gave 6 reading glasses. Dave of the Tucson group introduced Jay Fogle DDS who would like to help Paige Jeffs with the dental clinic . Saturday we visited Jardine’s for another good meal. Although the band was good we were all tired and no one danced. Sunday after a nice breakfast we returned home with good weather. Upon arriving at Placerville Airport Fred Martinez found Lisa Ashley’s keys which have been missing for one month.

Sr Bilito — March 15, 2009 (12 .20090313 )

Finally made it to clinic having missed February due to weather. Nice flight down-smooth. Steve flew Lisa Ashley, Paige Jeffs and Fred Martinez. I flew Mary Cunningham-Lusby, Debbie Marino and Amelia Erhart (aka Cindy Ashmead). Amelia flew down and back doing very well with handling the radio and flying. She takes her pilot checkride sometime this summer. Runway at San Quintin is now in great condition. The dental clinic had a large amount of termite debris which Paige went over early Saturday to clean up. When we arrived he was on his seventh extraction-what a worker. He saw 40 patients with about 30 extractions and 7 fillings. Mary, Lisa and I plugged away and saw 83 patients. We had several referrals to specialty clinic at Buen Pastore. Twenty eye exams were performed and 15 pairs of eyeglasses fitted. Steve Gorman examined a 75 year old lady who required significant lens correction and when she put them on a big smile lit her face. Steve’s face lit up also. Fred climbed onto the roof, measured and will report to Al Rabe. We were all off a little on time because Mexico doesn’t convert to DST until April 5th, so we were a bit early for breakfast. La Palapa has raised their food prices significantly such that we thought maybe we should find another restaurant for Friday night. Jardine’s prices seemed reasonable so we may decide to eat there both nights. Group decides. As Lisa says “stay well”

Sr Bilito — January 11, 2009 (14 .20090109 )

Well, it was an interesting clinic at San Quintin this weekend. Thanks to all of you who called regarding the closure of the runway at Robertson Ranch due to 15 days of rain. Alfredo is a jewel & advised us of the placement of barrels on the runway, preventing landing there. It would have caused damage to aircraft due to the sodden areas, plus damage to the runway itself. More about that later. Debbie Marino recognized that I wouldn’t be able to land at Calaveras to pick her up Friday due to fog obscuring the runway, so she spent the night with her son, Paul, in Placerville. We departed Placerville Friday with Debbie, Paige Jeffs & Joanne Shope, then flew over Calaveras; it was totally obscured by fog. Before departure, Alfredo called my wife to request that she tell me that the clinic runway was not useable due to rain damage. We flew to Ensenada in 3 hrs. & 4 minutes in very smooth air. At Ensenada, Debbie called Bill Hunt (Tucson head pilot) and received permission for us to land at a 6,000 ft. runway at El Rosario; this was built by a famous golfer expecting to build a resort there, which would allow wealthy clients to fly their jets there to look things over. We arrived there (only 21 miles south of our runway) and Bill Hunt transported us to their clinic to look it over, then he drove us to our vehicle at Robertson Ranch. We were shocked at the amount of water that had entered through the leaking roof, especially over all of our sterile dressings which Debbie had to throw away. We now have mold in the ceiling which I think, with time, will dry and disappear. The dental clinic seemed to be spared. We missed clinic in December due to weather preventing flying, so it felt good to get “back in the saddle.” Bill Hunt dropped us off at clinic and then drove down to El Rosario and brought back a R.N. named Nancy who was a big help. Guillermo helped Paige in the dental clinic until 2 o’clock, then Joe took over (recipient of this year’s Flying Sam’s award). The dentists need help for suctioning, sterilizing instruments, etc. and he is willing to train them OJT (on-the-job training). Joanne and I saw 71 patients and Paige saw 17 because he did mostly fillings and not extractions. Guillermo, Patti, Valentine and Alfredo were very appreciative of the $50 Christmas bonus given to each of them. Saturday, the group went to Jardines and then afterward, Mary Kay hired Lupe to bake an awesome banana cake. We all porked out on it. Bill Hunt and I inspected the runway and Bill took some pictures which I will forward upon receiving them. Sunday,13 of us piled into their van and we were delivered to the airport for return home. The ride was bumpy most of the way with 15-20 knot headwinds, but we arrived safely.