Espinal 1

Diana Espinal
Ms. Melissa Alvarado
AP English Course
February 27, 2015
A Safe Future for Honduran Patients
For he who has health has hope; and he who has hope, has everything. Owen
Arthur
Dreams are shaped by ideals and I believe, our surroundings, shape the beliefs we
grasp so strongly. Someday I want to save and change lives through a medical career.
Because my country has taught me that hospitals can be negative and radical in altering
lives, I hope to hold the ability to someday change that into a positive environment. I seek
the power to improve my life as well as the lives of those around me. And most of all
because I grew up in a country where health is seen as meaningless to the government,
causing a high rate of deaths. Public health in Honduras is a harsh reality and an everyday
problem affecting not only the patients but doctors, nurses and medicine students. With lack
of medication, patients lying in the hospital hallways and decaying infrastructure we are
leading Hondurans to their own death by simply ignoring this phenomena. My want to
become a doctor comes from my early experience with medicine, and how I saw my
doctors working to heal me. Motivated by the conditions of my countries public health and
my early connection with medicine, my dream to become a doctor is more fervent than
ever.

Espinal 2
I believe in the powerful message of Ecclesiastes 3:1, which states that every
endeavor man can undertake has its own time and meaning. Looking back on my life, I see
the changes that medicine has taken in my country. I have been taught to ignore this cruel
reality because by luck I do not have to experience it, yet it has become a heavy burden in
my life. This burden has helped me understand my potential and the path that I wish to take
in life. I feel that I have been blessed by God with the gift of understanding and the need to
serve and help others, and now I wish to apply the valuable life lesson I have gained to
what I feel is my true calling.
The Government, which I call the disease that is killing millions of Honduras, is both
terminal and debilitating. My want to become a doctor comes from the love I have to my
country, I am seeking to make a better place for Honduras in the public health area. The
hospital Mario Catarino Rivas, located in San Pedro Sula, Cortes, is a live and raw display
of the terrible conditions my country struggles with. Patients with open wounds that have
blood streaming down their scars lay down in the hospital hallways waiting to be attended
by a free nurse. Because of the lack of medication many people are sent home to die.
Because of the lack of hygiene doctors, nurses and medical volunteers are getting sick and
that not only kills the professional who are willing to help because of their love to science,
but it also scares them away. Swallowing they shock and distress, I devoted myself to
improving somehow this shocking nightmare my people go through. Being such an
intimate witness to the struggle of life and death, left me with a deep sense of human
fragility. I realized that the human body is so very intricate and beautiful in its complex
delicacy.

Espinal 3
I have been connected to medicine from an early life. I developed many health
problems while being a kid and that became my earliest impression of medicine. I recall my
doctors always being there for me, day or night. The respects my parents and family grant
on doctors, and the doctors ability to easy suffering, sparked a desire to one day become a
physician. During my visits in the hospital I got to know various doctors and nurses in the
hospital in a personal level. I remember feeling anxious about my visits, but no sadness or
even fear. It seemed to me that those around me, particularly my family, were fearful of
what might happen to me then I was. I do not believe it was innocence or ignorance, but
rather a trust in the abilities of my doctor. It was as if my doctors and I had a silent bond. It
was here that I experienced first-hand the power and compassion of medicine, not only in
healing but also in bringing unlikely individuals together, such as adults and children, in
uncommon profound ways.
The physicians dilemma particularly intrigued me: Doing everything to provide the
best health care possible, but constrained by limited resources when the funds just are not
available. These frustrating situations place a huge strain on physicians, and yet they
persevere and continue to work long hours in hospitals and clinics providing the best care
they can. While extremely aware of the long hours a physician must work and the
challenges he or she faces, I am choosing medicine because of the unique satisfaction it
provides, the rewards of helping a sick human being and changing countries future.
Becoming a doctor is a goal aspired by many, but taking it further one as in to improve a
countries public health is a goal I aspire. Despite all the hardship doctors face in this
country, I want to help people every day. Like my doctors and nurses I can find happiness
and satisfaction in helping people through medicine.