Jessica Denton
College of Health Sciences, Downers Grove, PA Class 2017.
Navigating the Mighty Amazon: PA Graduate Provides Care in Peru
I traveled to Peru in 2022 right after travel opened again following Covid for a vacation, travel adventure, and 10 days on the Amazon River with the organization Project Amazonas. I learned about Project Amazonas during PA school when I was interested in overseas trips and medical missions. They are a non-religious Peruvian-USA non-profit organization which is why I preferred them. They are dedicated to humanitarian, conservation, education, and research activities in the Peruvian Amazon region of South America.
We were on a boat for 10 days docking at villages the night before to let locals know there was a medical boat in the area and then having a clinic the next day. I also liked that they had a Peruvian doctor with us and a Peruvian dentist.
We would stop and have clinics and also get to interact with the locals, including playing soccer games and jumping off our boat into the river with the kids! It was the rainy season and the river and water level were very high. It was the first trip they had done since COVID and while Iquitos was hit pretty hard, the villages were less impacted it seemed.
The clinics were essentially just check-in, get any issues reviewed/addressed, receive counseling, and get medications if needed. It definitely helped to know Spanish but translation was also provided by the boat staff. We saw very few Western diseases; I think we met 1-2 diabetics. We gave out Tylenol and vitamins for kids and prenatal vitamins for the expectant mothers we met. A lot of talking up using local health clinics (staffed mostly by indigenous women trained by the doctors/city centers to provide local care; sometimes visiting outside providers). Also, we would help them know when things needed to be seen by the main doctors in Iquitos where they have full healthcare systems (state and private). I left on April 30th, just in time to move myself across the country.
About Jessica Denton, M.M.S. PA-C
Jessica Denton M.M.S., PA-C is a 2017 Downers Grove CHS alumni; post-graduation she fulfilled her scholarship commitment as an Indian Health Service (IHS) PA in Chinle, AZ, then returned to her hometown in Lompoc, CA. After the pandemic, she moved to Jacksonville, FL, and is currently working at the Mayo Clinic. She’s very thankful she still has a group chat with four classmates from Midwestern that has been ongoing since graduation.