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Medical Mission to Guatemala Brings Samuel Ramirez’s Personal

and Professional Beliefs into Sharp Focus

For Samuel Ramirez, Clinician Net- age. “Children work in the fields,
work Liaison, HCP Costa Mesa, the and because of a poor diet and lack
chance to travel to Guatemala in of hydration, their kidneys are at
March of this year as part of DaVita risk,” Ramirez noted. He and his fel-
Village Trust – Bridge of Life was low teammates interacted and
truly the opportunity of a lifetime. spoke with the residents, and they
It combined his professional abili- drew blood to help identify children
ties in community health education at risk, referring those who were at
with something very personal—the risk to additional needed medical
memory of his late mother, who services. They also provided nutri-
struggled for 17 years on hemodial- tional education.
ysis.
Helping others has always come
Ramirez’s medical experience naturally to Ramirez. Once a week,
combines being a pharmacy tech- for four hours at a time, he volun-
nician and medical assistant along teers at St. Mary Medical Center in
with community health education. the Clinical Care Extender Volunteer
Because the trip was a medical Program, providing a compassion-
mission, his experience suited the ate touch for patients. “I help them
criteria. It was a busy week; after if they need bathing or feeding, or if
returning from DaVita Academy on they need a blanket or to use the
a Wednesday night, Ramirez trav- restroom,” Ramirez said. “They
eled to Guatemala on Thursday, need compassion. I like to be there
March 5, returning home on the just to give them reassurance.
8th.
“It brings it home for me,” contin-
Samuel Ramirez drawing blood of a local resident, and
“This was a life-changing, humbling interacting with the community. ued Ramirez, who lost his father to
experience; it opened my eyes,” a massive stroke on March 20,
said Ramirez, who remembers traveling to the Philippines 2008—a day before Ramirez’s own birthday. Three months
with his late father, who loved to travel. He and 10 other later, his mother, a retired nurse, received a kidney trans-
teammates served as volunteers on this medical mission. plant; three years later, she passed away. “It was so hard to
see her on dialysis,” Ramirez recalled. “People who are pa-
They worked with a local pediatric nephrologist, as chronic tients at a hospital are somebody’s dad, mother, brother, or
kidney disease is prevalent in the area starting at a very early uncle. Each patient has a story. The personal interaction may

All information in the Vitality program is HIPAA protected. Members have chosen to share their personal health accomplishments.
For more information about Vitality, visit www.powerofvitality.com. Contact Janet Galli for further program information.