Carmen Lee-Bennett

This winter break, I traveled to Panama with Global Medical Brigades through Syracuse University to help provide free healthcare to underserved communities. I had the opportunity to work in consultation, dentistry, triage, and charla, gaining hands-on experience in patient interaction, identifying common medical concerns, and helping alleviate patient discomfort. This experience was truly eye-opening. I witnessed firsthand the disparities in access to healthcare in Panama and was inspired by the resilience of both the patients and the providers. I am deeply grateful for this experience and the lessons it taught me about compassion, adaptability, and the impact of accessible healthcare. I enjoyed meeting the incredible doctors and dentists in Panama and learning about their daily lives.

Something that surprised me is that we did the free clinics in school classrooms. Not only was it interesting to watch dentists perform extractions in a classroom environment, but it was also fascinating seeing the differences between these elementary/middle school classrooms compared to the ones in America. We were very limited on the materials so a lot of the same tools were used for different purposes. Additionally, we had to use daily objects like a headlamp for caving as a light for dentistry.

Seeing dentists perform successful extractions with limited tools, and patients remain incredibly grateful despite waiting hours for care, broadened my perspective on medicine and global health. Having an increased perspective in healthcare across the world will help me as I fulfill my goal of becoming an optometrist and help me appreciate what I have. Additionally, once I become an optometrist, I aim to help countries like Panama as eye health is vital and optometrists are in such high demand.

I would love to do a global medical brigade trip again like this one. Syracuse has a global medical brigades club and I plan to travel with them next year to a different country and provide free healthcare there!

Without honors, it would have been hard financially for me to go on this medical brigades trip. I am very grateful for having the support of honors as I likely wouldn’t have been able to attend this trip without their help.