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The Tolpan Experience
As a young man Dr. Hageseth experienced a deep desire to provide medical aid in Third World countries. But when he specialized in psychiatry, he narrowed the area of his expertise for doing such work. Had he been a surgeon he would have had abundant opportunities.
So when, in 1999 to 2001, his church together with the Luke Society (www.lukesociety.org) provided the opportunity to go to on medical missions to Honduras, he was good to go. When the missionary doctor was absent, he provided general medical care to the local population. He also taught the local physician how to recognize major depression and then supplied her with antidepressant medications for the local community.
Working to rebuild a medical clinic was only the first step. Further into the mountains were a very marginalized people, The Tolpan, who periodically starved because the growing season only allowed the growth of one crop per year. Hence, the best medicine was nutrition for the community and this was accomplished by installing an irrigation system for them. Since that time there has been no starvation and they have even had some crops left over to sell on the market.
The photographs that follow document different parts of those mission trips:
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| Dr. Hageseth provides care to an elderly Honduran woman suffering from tuberculosis. |
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| Dr. Hageseth works as part of the construction crew on the additions to the medical clinic. |
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| Dr. Hageseth works on installing a toilet in the medical clinic. |
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| Dr. Hageseth with Tolpan man in jungle near where the irrigation was to be installed. |
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| Dr. Hageseth with a Tolpan mother and her children. She is a widow, her husband died of Chaga’s Disease. |
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