Beryl Snyder, Radiology Specialist employed by Aultman Hospital, traveled in February to Honduras

2008-04-30 23:30:32 -

SANTA ROSA DE COPAN, HONDURAS-Beryl Snyder, Radiology Specialist employed by Aultman Hospital, traveled in February to Honduras for the seventh time where he volunteers as a Biomedical Technician with Central American Medical Outreach, Inc. (CAMO) in the Santa Rosa de Copan public health hospital and clinic.
'So many people thanked me for coming, it made a lasting impression,' said Snyder. On his first visit in 1997 Snyder commented on the conditions in the hospital, 'They hung x-rays--after processing--on a tree to dry. There were no screens on the open windows in surgery. In the kitchen they were making tortillas on a grate over an open fire to feed 200 patients.'
Since then CAMO has replaced the wood burning stoves with industrial quality electric appliances in the hospital kitchen and laundry along with multiple improvements throughout the hospital including electrical work, an emergency room, an air compressor system in 2007 to support the ventilators and currently a diagnostic center that will be completed this summer.
Snyder said he can't forget the lady who was so happy her baby lived that she walked a couple of days to get to the hospital to make sure he got to see the child.. 'I met her when I was going into the emergency room to install an EKG machine we had brought down. She made sure I got to see it,' said Snyder.
Snyder repaired five ultrasounds while teammates John Gallagher and Bob Warner were able to get the mammography machine operating and two x-ray units in the public health clinic which did not have a single unit functioning for 600,000 people.
The team repaired adult and infant ventilators, ECG monitors, EKG machines, fetal monitors, pulse oximeters, incubators, suction machines, nebulizers and performed preventive maintenance on a medical air compressor system that CAMO installed last October.
'We fix whatever we're handed that doesn't work,' said Allen Dicks, Senior Biomedical Technician with the team.
Since 1993, CAMO has renovated the Hospital de Occidente, public health and community buildings and continually expanded to now offer 17 healthcare programs in Santa Rosa de Copan. CAMO, a humanitarian aid organization based in Orrville, OH, cares for more than 143,000 medical needs with an average of $2 million in donated medical supplies, equipment and expertise annually. CAMO, a 501(c) 3 non-profit, multiplies every $1 donated into $4.
To learn more about the caring work of CAMO, visit: www.CAMO.org