Religion and Health in Ecuador

For the past week our preceptor has been home sick with dengue. We have been working with another physician in the meanwhile. We are spending half of our time at El Centro Medico Hombro a Hombro and half of our time at the FASCA Consultorio Central, which is a “sister organization” of Hombro a Hombro. However, the patients are vastly different between the two organizations. Hombro a Hombro serves an extremely poor, suburban population which resides in a barrio just outside of Santo Domingo and the Consultorio Central serves a slightly better-off urban population.

Throughout the past week I have been able to observe how religion impacts medical treatment in Santo Domingo. During one patient consultation, the patient presented with hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, type II diabetes and obesity. The physician attempted to educate the patient on eating a balanced diet, low in sugar and fat. However, the patient kept insisting that life was God’s will and that if God put the food on the Earth then it was meant to be eaten. Both the patient and physician began quoting Bible verses in order to make their individual points. It was very interesting to see how intertwined religion and health are in Santo Domingo. During a second patient consultation, a 4 year old male presented with signs of a respiratory infection. The child is severely developmentally delayed after a traumatic birth. The mother was told by an outside physician that the child would die and very little has been done to help the child developmentally. Throughout the appointment the mother kept stating that it is thanks to God that her child is alive. Yet the mother failed to understand the importance of getting her child additional help, which could be provided through a special program available in Santo Domingo.