One of the great things about living in this day and age is that there is always some new opportunity to reach out – whether it be in your community, your state or somewhere around the globe. Better yet, when you can make a contribution that changes lives, you know that you are impacting not just the present but the future as well. Recently, the Natural Ultrasound team donated a GE LOGIQ ultrasound machine to the 104-member Cascade Medical team for their trip to Santa Cruz del Quiche, Guatemala in South America.
The GE LOGIQ is a high performance, yet compact ultrasound that is especially perfect for identifying health problems related to abdominal, vascular, gastroenterology, podiatry, transcranial and a number of other applications. As a result, the Cascade Medical team was able to perform 77 surgeries (2 dental, 10 OB/GYN, 50 general surgeries and 15 cholecysteomies), visited 1,117 clinics, and 510 general practice and OB/GYN and pediatrics visits. They were also able to provide classroom instruction for 46 midwives.
The Cascade Medical team is dedicated to not only providing free healthcare and health education to the many regions of Guatemala, but also being there to assist and educate the people in fields such as construction, cooking, household management, teaching and numerous other areas so that they can better use the resources around them. They are focused on the communities and the Cascade team looks for ways to help improve quality of life – both physically through the use of medicine as well as in practice through projects such as the installation of water filters or the donation a ONIL stove for a local elementary school.
The National Ultrasound team was blessed to have a small part in this great outreach opportunity, and just knowing that the GE LOGIQ system we donated was able to help so many is its own reward. When one is able to give back a portion of the advantages we often take for granted, it is an eye opening moment and reminds us of just how far things have come – especially in the world of medicine and technology.
As a company that is focused on ultrasound, it can be easy to be so caught up on the things a piece of equipment such as the GE LOGIQ can do that we forget about the lives that are changed as a result. After all, knowing the system is compact and portable is a definite plus for the average US medical location, but when you think about it being used to help those who might never see the inside of a US-like healthcare facility and recognize how many lives it changed in such a short time, it is really amazing!
So don’t take the quality of healthcare in the U.S. for granted, and always be on the lookout for opportunities to give back. You will be glad you did!
For more information about how you can get involved with the Cascade Medical Team, visit their website.