Mexico Mission

In March, 2009, I joined eleven other chiropractors from California, Missouri, Wisconsin, Arkansas, and Colorado to volunteer our time and chiropractic expertise in Piedras Negras, Mexico.

Piedras Negras is a city of more than 200,000 people, but not a single chiropractor. The nearest chiropractor is three hours away in San Antonio, Texas. As such, our chiropractic service was very needed and highly valued.

This three day event was sponsored by the Rotary Club of Piedras Negras with the cooperation of the Mexican Red Cross. It was an extremely rewarding experience for me. Although we worked long days with a seemingly endless line of patients waiting, my exhaustion could not damper my joy of helping so many people.

Despite chiropractic being relatively unknown to this community, over 1400 patients were willing to wait up to 3-4 hours for an opportunity to find help an extensive range of health problems. The majority of patients sought relief for physical complaints such as: back pain, herniated discs, shoulder problems, knee pain, and carpal tunnel syndrome.

Since there are no chiropractors in Piedras Negras and since many patients cannot afford any treatment on their own, the majority of cases were chronic and had cause other problems rather than just their original complaints.

The Rotary Club arranged to have translators from a local high school for each doctor. After a case history and examination ( and a review of X rays if available) the patients were treated to their first chiropractic treatments. Although many patients probably didn't understand how chiropractic works, they understood when their pain was helped and their bodies became more flexible again. Their grateful smiles and thank yous (gracias) let us know they understood enough.