I cannot be the only one that is in disbelief that we are halfway through our ITF summer, right? Time surely flies when you’re having fun. But you know what else flies? Cockroaches. And sometimes, they fly right into farmworker’s ears, and the moment to spur into action and resolve the situation presents itself!
On my second day at my placement, Prospect Hill Community Health Center, my advisor Sophie and I were walking through the waiting room after picking up a farmworker when we were waved down by the front desk. The receptionist introduced us to a farmworker who’d unfortunately had a cockroach crawl into his ear while he was sleeping. The doctors in our clinic had attempted to remove it but were unsuccessful in retrieving the whole thing. He was instructed to go to the UNC Chapel Hill emergency room, in hopes of an ear nose and throat doctor, who would have more specialized tools. The problem was, in addition to an insect being lodged deep in his ear, the car that he had access to was in no shape to make a 45-minute drive, and he didn’t speak any English to expedite his need for care. Did I mention he had arrived on his H2A visa two nights before?
All plans for the rest of the afternoon were cleared as Sophie, our farmworker, and I hopped into the van, and headed to Chapel Hill. Once we got there, I helped him get signed in and complete his triage. Then, we waited. And waited. And waited, for about 4 hours, before a doctor finally assessed the medical situation. They first attempted to suction the roach out in smaller pieces, but it was too deep in the canal. The ENT doctor appeared on the scene to assist in the removal and did so successfully with specialized curved forceps. Although I’ll admit bugs and intense medical situations are not usually my forte, the action in the examination room captured 100% of my attention. After about 16 hours of poking and prodding, our farmworker could finally breathe a sigh of relief knowing he was cockroach free. We got him ear drops, completed some paperwork, and we were on our way.
What’s to be taken away from this experience is much more than a once-in-a-lifetime (hopefully) trip to the ER, but how truly vital organizations like Piedmont Health Services are to our farm working communities. Without the transportation services and bilingual employees, our farmworker could have been in discomfort for much longer. It felt good to know that he trusted the clinic to assist him with the situation from start to finish, and I felt proud to work with an organization that went the extra mile to support it's patients. Since then, most of my days have been mellow in comparison (in a good way, of course), but my appreciation for the work done in and around the fields continues to grow!
