Interview with Nurse Dochyta Falcon, Nueva Segovia, Nicaragua

Dochyta Falcon works as a nurse in the Dr. Alfonso Moncada Guillen Hospital in Ocotal, Nicaragua, a town high in the country’s northern mountains. In addition to her duties at the hospital, Dochyta organizes educational workshops on community health and prevention in rural communities across the country and personally visits dozens of families in her community every year. Dochyta is often the first to see children brought to the hospital suffering from pneumonia.

What are the biggest threats to the health of young children in northern Nicaragua?

There are a number of factors making young children so vulnerable. Many families here live in extreme poverty, overcrowded homes, and are far away from health centers and health posts. As a result, parents must carry their children long distances on foot or on horseback to receive proper medical attention, so children are not receiving the immediate medical attention they need. Homemade remedies for pneumonia are common and environmental factors are also a threat. The women cook everyday with wood stoves, which are often not properly built and fill their homes with smoke which little children are breathing on a regular basis.

How has pneumonia impacted your community?

Things are very severe this winter – which is our pneumonia season. The hospital is completely full of children with pneumonia. The Nicaraguan Ministry of Health has declared an alert and established a medical brigade comprised of medical specialists, general practitioners, nurses, and laboratory technicians, to travel to the most rural communities providing services to those in need. For many years, only those who could pay for medical services would receive them. As a result, poor people were dying because they didn’t have money to see a physician. Our country, however, is moving forward as the current government has mandated free health services for all people. Although we have many problems, we are fighting to provide Nicaraguans high quality care and attention. Several other countries have assisted us with the delivery of our health services, such as the United States, Spain, Taiwan, Cuba, Venezuela and others. From the bottom of our hearts, we want to say thank you.

The Hib vaccine has already made great strides in preventing pneumonia cases in Nicaragua. What impact would a vaccine against pneumococcus have in your hospital?

The impact would be tremendous. I can say that the vaccine would greatly reduce the number of children requiring medical attention in the rural areas. As for the hospital I work in, it would reduce the number of children hospitalized with serious cases of pneumonia, as well as reduce the number of boys and girls sent to the children’s hospital in Managua. In Nicaragua, pneumonia is one of the most frequently cited causes of death among children under five years old. The vaccine would give us faith that the lives of our children will be secure against this painful and deadly illness. This gives us all hope.  

PneumoADIP would like to extend our appreciation and heartfelt thanks to Nurse Dochyta for giving of her time, energy and experience during a recent PneumoADIP visit to Nicaragua.

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