The Laredo Shrine Club assisted in the transporting of a 20-month-old boy that was burned…
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Laredo’s Shrine Club provided a glimmer of hope to a child from Mexico who was burned on a third of his body as he was transported to Galveston, Texas via the port of Laredo.
The Alzafar Shriners and Anezeh Shriners met at the Juarez-Lincoln Bridge this past weekend in efforts to oversee a patient coming from Mexico to go to the Shriner Children’s Texas Hospital. The child was 20 months old and his burns were accidental, as a pot with boiling water fell over him.
Ruben Bazan III, past president of the Laredo Shrine Club, told LMT that on Valentine’s Day, the boy was playing nearby a large pot of boiling water and accidentally fell into it. He had burns on 35% of his body including second-degree burns on 21%.
“He was stabilized at Hospital Materno Infantil in Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico,” Bazan said. “Amid oxygen infusions and some medications, it was decided that he would be taken to Shriner’s Texas Children’s Hospital in Galveston, Texas where they specialize in these kinds of cases, amongst others.”
Bazan said that when Shriners received the initial phone call, they acted quickly to get the gears rolling for him to be transported to the international bridge,op and from there to the interior of the state. He states that this is all thanks to clear lines of communication with their Mexican counterparts as well.
“In Mexico, Shriners often team up with certain government entities and agencies to assist with the Mexican ambulance that crosses over to Laredo,” Bazan said. “Meanwhile on the American side, we handle the ambulance that will be transporting the patient all the way to Galveston. Once the patient is pre-admitted to the hospital, the local Shriners must work quickly with Customs and Border Protection to provide humanitarian visas for the patient and his/her parent/legal guardian. This means that there are lots of hands coming together to save a child.”
Bazan said he gives a “tip of the hat” to their Mexican Shriner counterparts for all of the hard work that they do.
“They are the first contact and have so much experience with cases like these that the way they do their work is almost second nature,” he added. “It is thanks to them that we learn about our patients.”
Another thing that the local Shriners Club does in efforts to prevent the family from having any burdens as they attend to their child is paying the transportation costs. According to Bazan, the cost of an ambulance from Laredo to Galveston averages between $3,500-$4,500.