TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - It’s hard to imagine that a bump to the elbow could land you in the hospital - but such was the case for 11-year-old Eric Vargas of Honduras.

Like many young boys his age, Eric loves to play. But things turned serious when he ran into a doorway inside his house. Immediately, his elbow began to swell and without hesitation, his mother Ebony rushed him to Hospital Escuela, the largest public hospital in all of Honduras that treats an estimated 40-60,000 patients each month.

Eric is a hemophiliac, so any minor injury can become life-threatening in a moment’s notice. Fortunately, when he and his mother arrived to the hospital, there was medicine available.

For the past four months, the hospital has been without Factor VIII, the most common medicine to treat hemophilia, an inherited disorder in which one of the proteins needed to form blood clots is missing. Factor VIII provides hemophiliacs with the necessary protein, and depending on the individual case, some hemophiliacs require several doses a month - others, several doses a day.

Operation Blessing was alerted to the need by the First Lady of Honduras and quickly contacted partner, MAP International, who was able to secure a donation of 700 doses of the Factor VIII medicine from Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, worth approximately $250,000.

The shipment of medication, which required strict temperature controls, was then rushed by global delivery giant, DHL, from the U.S. at no cost and arrived in-country within 48 hours for distribution to patients.

“This medicine literally saved lives,” Dr. Etna Yaneth told our team. Dr. Yaneth is the head of the department of pharmacy at the hospital and keeps detailed records of each person who receives the medicine.

She escorted our team to see another hemophiliac patient waiting in the emergency room. The 57-year-old man had a massive hematoma in his leg and had traveled six hours by car to reach the hospital.

“If we had not had the medicine, this man surely would have died,” Dr. Yaneth said.

Thanks to the donation from Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, and the partnership with MAP International and DHL, the 700 doses of Factor VIII are now helping to treat 200 patients in Honduras.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 14th, 2008 at 11:26 am and is filed under Honduras, Latin America. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.