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 and travel adventure, which included 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 I preferred, who are dedicated to humanitarian, conservation, education and research activities to the Peruvian Amazon region of South America.
We were on a boat for 10 days. We would dock at villages at night, let locals know there was a medical boat in the area and would provide a clinic the next day. I also liked that they had a Peruvian doctor and dentist with us.
We would stop at the villages to provide our clinic and interact with the locals, including playing soccer games and jumping off our boat into the river with the kids! It was the first trip that Project Amazonas had done since COVID and while Iquitos was hit pretty hard, the villages were less impacted it seemed.
The clinics provided check-ins, reviewed and addressed any medical issues, mental health counseling and medications. 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. We informed our patients about local clinics, staffed mostly by indigenous women trained by the doctors/city centers to provide local care; sometimes visiting outside providers. We also helped them learn how to identify symptoms that require a visit to eh 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.
PÕ¾ÊÓƵ 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 PÕ¾ÊÓƵ that has been ongoing since graduation.