SIERRA VISTA — Jennifer Lakosil thinks it’s important to use her nursing skills to help everybody, not just those who can afford the help.
 Jennifer Lakosil, right, a pediatric nurse practitioner, performs volunteer medical services for an unidentified patient at the Casa Hogar Emanuel Orphanage in Naco, Sonora, in this undated photo. (Katie Evans•Wick News Service) |
Most of the work Jennifer is involved with there is providing medical care for kids who are disabled through the center’s crisis intervention clinic, she said. Jennifer had done a fellowship for developmental disabilities, and knew that would be a good fit for her.
When she got there the first time, though, Jennifer said it shocked her.
“I just went with a little bag,” she said. When she arrived, there were 30 people already lined up at the clinic. “I was not prepared.”
Jennifer described the first visit as “devastating.”
“I thought ‘Oh my God, how can you not go back?’ ” Jennifer remembered. “And I go every single month.”
Jennifer said it was hard the first year she went down, saying the place “haunts you.”
“Once you’ve gone down there, and see the devastation and the poverty and the lack of resources, you can’t just walk away,” she said.
“It’s like stepping back in time,” she continued. “It’s weird because you just cross the border and there’s nothing.”
She said she works with a lot of kids who have cerebral palsy because of birth trauma, in addition to children who have suffered accidents.
Once, she described, she saw a boy who had lost his legs and an arm because of picking up an electrical wire. She said they were able to set him up with a prosthetic arm.
Jennifer said the trips down are more organized now, with files kept on site for patients as well as a clinic being set up.
A lot of what she does involves social services which includes, when necessary, attempting to arrange to have some patients cross the border into the U.S. who need a test or procedure done, which she arranges to have done for free.
“Coordination of care,” she explained. “I end up doing a lot of that in Mexico and in the United States.”
Jennifer has since branched out and started working with the Casa Hogar Emanuel Orphanage in Naco, Sonora, an effort she took over from another person when they left, where she provides free medical treatment for the orphans.
On a November trip down to Naco, Jennifer, along with other volunteers that included some of the nursing students she works with at Cochise College as the director of nursing/allied health, took down vitals on orphans as the group, not affiliated with Wings of Angels, began to build up medical records for the kids.
“It’ll take awhile at the orphanage,” she said.
Jennifer said she started getting interested nursing students involved because “you want students to get that feeling of community involvement.”
“They like it,” she said. “They think it’s rewarding.”
Working as an administrator at Cochise College, where she started in 2006, has allowed Jennifer the ability to build relationships that have opened up resources to her such as flu vaccines — originally purchased by the Mexican Consulate to use on Mexicans in the United States — which she was able to use on both the orphans in Naco, Ariz., and some of her patients in Agua Prieta.
“The job allows me to be more connected,” she said. “Do more charity work.”
Marge Conroy, a physical therapist who got Jennifer involved with Wings of Angels, said Jennifer’s energy is amazing.
“She’s very, very much a driver there (in Agua Prieta),” she said. “She’s the Energizer Bunny, I call her.
“She keeps us kind of motivated, too.”
Jennifer said it’s just a humbling experience to be able to work with the children in Naco and Agua Prieta.
“They’re just gracious,” she said.
Jennifer said she appreciates that the college encourages the volunteerism that she loves doing.
“It’s my passion,” she said. “It’s what drives me.”
Comments
Thank You wrote on Mar 4, 2009 9:09 AM: