April 2006

TOPIC:  Amazon Doctor Runs a Jungle Clinic

SPEAKER:  Linnea J. Smith

WHEN:  Tuesday, April 18

TIME:  7:00 pm Refreshments
TIME:  7:30 pm Program

WHERE:  NEW LOCATION: Room 184, Russell Laboratories, 1630 Linden Drive, Across from Babcock Hall, UW-Madison

PARKING:  Lot 36 on Observatory Drive, west of Steenbock Library

Map:  Map of Russel Labs and Lot 36

Note: watch for detour signs or see the construction map

PRE-MEETING DINNER:  You are invited to join Madison Audubon board members and friends at the pre-program dinner with our speaker.

Note: NEW Location: Porta Bella, 425 N. Francis St.

Paisan's Restaurant, our old location, is moving to West Wilson Street and will be closed for some time to accomplish the move.

QUESTIONS?:  Please call the MAS office at (608)255-2473.

Imagine living where there are no roads, no electricity, no running water, and the only way folks can get to you is by dugout canoe.

Now imagine trying to deliver babies, suture wounds, or treat patients with snakebite or infections in a thatch-roofed clinic without a staff, funding or lab services.

Dr. Linnea Smith flew to Iquitos, Peru, for a vacation at Explorama Lodge, an eco-tourism center that promotes low-impact and ecologically-sustainable tourism to a natural area along the river. She thought she was taking a vacation to see a bit of the Amazon jungle, watch birds and monkeys, and enjoy the sights of a place very different from her home in Mazomanie. Instead, she fell in love with the people and place, and decided to start a medical clinic. In 1990, Dr. Smith gave up her medical practice in Wisconsin to care for the indigenous people of Peru who live along the Amazon River and its tributaries.

Dr. Smith returned and worked from the lodge, which still supports her work, until Rotary clubs from several cities (including Madison) gathered funds and volunteers and pitched in to build a 6-room clinic with a well and solar panels for electricity. The clinic is about 50 miles downriver (8 or 9 hours by water taxi or 12 to 16 hours by dugout canoe) from Iquitos.

Today, 2,000-2,500 patients a year travel on foot or by dugout canoe for health care that includes family planning, prenatal care, dental care, and medical treatments for infectious diseases, parasites, and traumas at Yanamono Medical Clinic. For more information on the clinic, visit their Internet site at: http://www.amazonmedical.org. Some of Dr. Smith’s journals are available in La Doctora: The Journal of an American Doctor Practicing Medicine on the Amazon River, published by Pfeifer-Hamilton Pubs in 1998.