1975 - Archives, Krannert Memorial Library, University of Indianapolis

Dave Hilton Takes Medicine To Honduras
"Many of the patients broke down
and wept because they were so grate-
ful. It was very difficult for us to
leave."
These were the words of alumnus Dr.
David Hilton '53 of Menomonie after a
mission of mercy to Honduras last De-
cem ber.
He was accompaned by his son, Ben,
a iunior at Menomonie High, and Dr.
and Mrs. Bruce W. Trimble, of Menom-
onie.
The quartet left Friday, December 13,
for Miami, FL, where they were ioined
by 16 other persons from throughout
the country who are trained in the
medical profession. The following day
the contingent embarked by plane for
Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras.
On Sunday, the group from Meno-
monie, along with several other per-
sons, traveled by bus to the mountain
village of Manzaragua, located about
90 miles southeast of Tegucigalpa. Dr.
Hilton remained here until Thursday
afternoon seeing patients.
The excursion was sponsored by the
Christian Medical Society with the Med-
ical Group Missions, an arm of the
society, organizing the trip. Dr. Hilton
said MGM organizes about 10 to 15
such trips annually, mostly to Central
American countries.
While Manzaragua is identified on
the map, Dr. Hilton said the only build-
ing in the village is a school and when
the medical team arrived Sunday after-
noon, lines of patients were already
waiting.
The country of Honduras attracted
national publicity earlier in the year
when it was struck by a hurricane but
Dr. Hilton explained that Tegucigalpa
and the mountain villages were out of
the storm area. However, he said, evi-
dence of the hurricane was noted in
Tegucigalpa where mud slides off the
mountains wiped out homes.
Dr. Hilton reports the team worked
with the Honduran Red Cross which
made the physical arrangements and
provided support personnel.
The Honduran Red Cross, he said,
determined that the mountain villages
had more medical needs than other
sections of the country because a vast
majority of the people had never con-
sulted a medical doctor or a dentist.
He said a hospital is located in Te-
Dave Hilton
gucigalpa but a resident of Manzaragua
desiring to visit a doctor in that fa-
cility would need to spend $10 for a
round-trip ticket via truck, then stand
in line from eight to ten hours to re-
ceive an appointment three months
from now.
The number of doctors in Tegucigalpa
is inadequate to serve the entire popu-
lation, said Dr. Hilton, and one needs
to be a member of the "upper class"
to receive immediate attention.
"Because of these conditions," he
said. "very few residents of the moun-
tain villages had ever been to a doc-
tor."
"We took medical supplies with us,"
he continued. "'I collected medicine
from drug companies and salesmen and
also purchased some supplies. Dr. Trim-
ble did the same thing."
Dr. Hilton spent from Sunday after-
noon to Thursday in Manzaragua and
Friday morning in Guinope visiting pa-
tients. (Dr. Trimble, after spending a
couple of days in Manzaragua, finished
his tour in Guinope.)
During his stay in Honduras, Dr. Hil-
ton estimates he saw about 200 pa-
tients per day and "100 percent of
them had worms." In addition, he said,
there was a lot of arthritis from hard
work and a fair amount of malnutrition
and vitamin deficiencies.
"All our patients had very bad teeth
which had been destroyed by decay,"
said Dr. Hilton. While no accurate count
was kept, it is estimated that Dr. Trim-
ble performed 500 extractions while in
Honduras. (He brought his own supply
of novocaine with him.)
Dr. Trimble's dental chair was a lawn
chair propped up on a couple of boxes.
There wasn't any electricity, said Dr.
Hilton, and Dr. Trimble's only source of
artificial light was a battery-operated
head set.
The team worked in the school house
and Dr. Hilton said he examined pa-
tients from 8 a.m. to 5-6 p.m. daily.
He said he was assisted by three nurses
who obtained case histories.
Spanish is the native language and
Dr. Hilton doesn't speak the language
so patients related their "problems"
through interpreters.
The total team included the quartet
from Menomonie, three nurses, another
nurse who with her husband are mis-
sionaries in the Dominican Republic and
her three children, two ladies from the
Honduran Red Cross, and five high
school students from Tegucigalpa. The
three children, ages eight, ten and
twelve, served as interpreters.
Dr. Hilton's son and the five high
school students worked as helpers (in
military terms, they were support per-
sonnel, said Dr. Hilton), and they be-
came very good friends, although they
had problems communicating.
"One of Ben's prime responsibilities,"
said Dr. Hilton, was to draw prepared
medicine from a gallon lug with a syr-
inge and give each patient a 'shot in
the mouth' for worms."
The Menominie delegation also slept
in a school house and ate their meals
in a private home.
"We didn't have any drinking water
so every time we were thirsty we ate
an orange." said Dr. Hilton. The natives,
he added, obtain their drinking water
from a small creek which is also utilized
for washing clothes and a watering
spot for cattle.
Dr. Hilton described the natives in
the mountain villages as "subsistence
farmers"-they raise sufficient crops to
survive-and the principal foods are
beans and tortillas (corn cake). They
also raise rice, bananas and oranges
and some farmers have a couple of
cows, a burro and a few chickens. He
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