Hannah Gawryluk
Apr 14, 2025
Triage can be a crowded and chaotic environment at times. Lots of people and keeping people in line. Weeding people out who maybe need care more urgently than others and taking lots and lots of vital signs. Working in triage tests your hand strength and ability to get a pulse ox on a tiny moving baby finger. I enjoy the busyness and fast pace, but at times it gets overwhelming and loud and you feel like you’re cranking through patients hard and fast.
In the clinic in Iquitos we had several stages and holding areas for patients as they worked through getting care - from registration to triage to provider care to counseling to pharmacy. This particular clinic and church was very organized and I felt that it flowed pretty well. I was working at the triage stage taking blood pressures, temps, oxygen levels, pulse and weight.
The waiting queue of people got full and I took some time to look up and scan the crowd of people patiently waiting on the benches. In the row near the back I spotted a little girl and her mom. The girl didn’t look good. Glassy eyes, flushed face and she sat with her head resting on her mom’s shoulder. I went over and asked if I could take her temperature in my very limited Spanish.
Her mom nodded and my thermometer immediately flashed me the red fever reading. “Fiebre?” I asked the mom to which she nodded with a concerned expression. I asked them to follow me, brought them upstairs, sat them down next in line to meet with a provider and got the girl some water.
I didn’t think much more about it. I had done it several times that day for several different patients who were more sick than others and the day carried on quickly. The next day was Sunday and we had a little excursion planned up the Amazon river. We had gone out from a port near Iquitos onto the river and then up to a village area where they showed us a replica of a tribal building and people who did a dance for us and told us about indigenous tribes of the area and how they live. There were several women and children as part of the presentation. They were all decked out in tribal gear including headdresses and traditional clothing. After the presentation, which included them teaching us a tribal dance that involved all of us holding hands and running in a pattern, they had souvenirs to sell. As we were walking back down the river bank to the boat one of the women tapped my arm and offered me a bracelet. I assumed that she was trying to sell me it and I replied “oh no, gracious.” We all got on the boat and I thought nothing more of it. There was some talk of something about a gift for someone, but I didn’t quite catch it all. Then Robbie announced that one of the ladies had a gift for us for treating her daughter and it clicked a little more. I said to Abby beside me “I think it’s me, that girl looked familiar”. The mom got on the boat, came to me, gave me a bracelet and thanked me for treating her daughter. I then realized that it was the little girl with the fever. It was a neat moment. It made me realize that every interaction is important and that the attitude and way that we do things makes a huge difference. A cup of cool water to a kid and Tylenol goes a whole lot further than I ever thought it could. Even in the chaos and busyness, every individual counts.
About the Author
Hannah is a physical therapy assistant and long-time traveler with Medical Missions Outreach.