The UCSD Chapter of the Palomar/San Diego Flying Samaritans drove to Mexico on Saturday, teaming up with honor society Alpha Epsilon Delta and four doctors to provide free medical care to people in need in the town of Ensenada.

The clinic is run every weekend, alternately by the Flying Samaritans and AED, but this weekend was unique because rarely do more than two doctors fly down to help. The clinic was also scheduled to open Sunday to accommodate the greater number of patients that four doctors could handle.

The doctors’ plane landed on the small Ensenada airstrip Saturday morning, having flown from the San Francisco Bay Area earlier in the day. They make the trip to Ensenada twice a year.

The doctors set up shop in the clinic just past noon. A crowd of more than 70 people had gathered outside, waiting to receive medical care.

"Doctors work from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. or 5 p.m. without stopping to eat because there are so many patients. [The patients] will wait in lines for us, in the rain and cold, to see a doctor," said Flying Sams secretary and historian Elizabeth Stephens.

Children played catch outside or colored in coloring books provided by the Flying Samaritans while their parents waited on benches to see the doctors. A toy giveaway in a nearby park also provided entertainment for some children.

This was the first time AED and the Flying Samaritans had worked in the clinic together. The 16 AED and Flying Samaritans volunteers interviewed patients, took their blood pressure and recorded their medical histories.

Many volunteers were fluent in Spanish as well as English, speaking with the patients in their native language and helping to translate for the doctors.

The majority of the patients are Mexican nationals, but some, such as Pedro Luna, were U.S. citizens living in Ensenada.

Luna has a venous malformation of the brain: a life-threatening condition in which a brain blood vessel becomes swollen with blood, inhibiting some brain activity and becoming likely to rupture. Luna has been gradually losing the ability to control the left side of his body.

No treatment could be given at the clinic for Luna’s condition, according to Paul Pitlyk, a neurologist at the clinic. As a U.S. citizen, Luna was eligible for free treatment under MediCAL, but he was turned down when he applied. Pitlyk wrote a letter to MediCAL explaining the seriousness of Luna’s condition, hoping that a letter from an American doctor would push the organization toward accepting Luna.

Most treatments at the weekend clinic consisted of distributing medicine and advice. The medicine and other supplies are donated by hospitals such as UCSD’s Thornton Hospital. San Jose Clinic, a private clinic down the street from the Flying Samaritans in Ensenada, has made its surgery facilities available once a month to the Flying Samaritans free of charge.

"These patients can’t possibly afford the San Jose Clinic," Stephens said, noting its amenities of air conditioning and tile floors.

The Flying Samaritans’ clinic consisted of an old building loaned to the students after negotiations with the Mexican governmental organization DIF, similar to the American Red Cross. Emma Lencioni, a local Ensenada woman and wife of former Mexican President Arnoldo Aleman’s airplane pilot, helped get the clinic building for the Flying Samaritans.

Before the Flying Samaritans established the Ensenada clinic, Lencioni had shuttled patients from Ensenada to the Flying Samaritans’ clinic in Tecate. Some of the patients had no means of transportation and could not afford the bus ride to Tecate.

Lencioni collaborates with a Guadalajaran woman named Marielena, who runs seminars at the clinic during the week, teaching local residents basic skills such as sewing.

Funding for the clinic is done primarily on the U.S. side of the border. While the Flying Samaritans is a Student Organization Leadership Opportunities organization, it does not receive A.S. Council funding because most of its activities take place off campus.

"We basically raise our own money. We just organized a banquet at the Doubletree hotel in Mission Valley and got items donated to have a silent auction," said clinic coordinator Kranti Gollapudi.

The banquet raised over $3,000, all of which went directly to the clinic, she said.

Though the focus is on the patients, the students cherish the opportunity provided by the clinic, according to Gollapudi.

"Every time I come down here, I realize this is why I want to be a doctor," Gollapudi said.

Around 40 members sign up for each weekend clinic, while there are only half that many spots available. The clinic coordinator decides who gets to go to Ensenada based on their participation in the club’s U.S.-based activities, such as fund-raising. Priority is also given to Spanish speakers.

"We get an idea of what the world is like outside the United States and other wealthy countries where everyone has some sort of health insurance," said club President Joy Hardison. "When I become a doctor, I need to dedicate part of my life to charity work. It’s by random chance that people like us have this wealth, this opportunity."