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00:00Expedition Overland's Pan American Series is presented by General Tire. Anywhere is possible.
00:41Our travels are taking us in a new direction for a few days. The guys from the Team 5 Foundation
00:46have arrived here in Belize. As well as Steve Talaki, our newest Expedition member. We are all about to take
00:56on a special mission together.
01:04I'm Eric. I'm the founder of Team 5 Foundation. Special Forces, which we call SoftMed Medical Foundation, that takes special
01:11forces operators that were either in or right now active special forces units and bring them into overlooked locations around
01:19the world because of their experiences and their education in different wildernesses like the jungles, deserts, where normal medical foundations
01:28are.
01:28Just can't reach.
01:29Eric held a command staff position of Director in the UN Mission in Kosovo. He's one of the only Americans
01:36ever recruited for Israeli Special Forces Combat Search and Rescue Team and went on to earn a fellowship in Wilderness
01:42Medicine where he became interested in building the most remote and a steer foundation, Team 5.
01:50Grif is a West Point graduate and spent his time in Iraq and Afghanistan participating in over 150 Special Operations
01:57Direct Action missions. And Dr. Keith, well, we can't really talk about him. If you know what I mean.
02:05So we're in the last 20 miles of Belize. We're on our way out. We are trying to make the
02:12Guatemalan border tonight. We are hoping that if we get to the border at the end of the day, that
02:18they'll be tired and sloppy and want to just sign us out so they can go home.
02:24Didn't take long to realize that these guys fit right in.
02:27I don't know how to use this thing.
02:30Go straight.
02:35Here at the Guatemalan border. Just going in. We're going in undercover. Trying to film some of this process. Hopefully
02:41we can get through quickly.
02:42Get through tonight. But it is quite hectic, which is good or it might be bad. I just don't know.
02:56All right. So what's my next step? Fumigation.
02:59Fumigation. Yep. Okay. All right. Thank you.
03:01I got two more guys with us. They're the exact same scoop. Thank you very much. Thank you.
03:05Now we head into fumigation. Get our truck sprayed down.
03:09As we finalize the vehicle paperwork to enter Guatemala, the other guys catch a quick soccer game with the local
03:14kids.
03:26Oh, look at this kid.
03:40Myself and the other drivers have finally completed our paperwork.
03:42We're spending like four dollars making copies over there.
03:46Making copies.
03:47Yeah.
03:49Total scam.
03:50But it's the way it is.
03:51All right. Are we hopping in? Let's rock and roll.
03:52It's time to crank out some miles into Guatemala and find a camp area for the night.
03:57We land at a small hotel that lets us camp in the parking lot by the lake.
04:05At dinner, we get a sense of what's going to happen in the days ahead.
04:08You're going to do the triage area first and you're going to do blood pressures.
04:10You're going to get an idea of what they have.
04:11Then you're going to send it to Eric and I.
04:13And Eric and I may split on one.
04:15We may work together on one.
04:16And we may split if it's two medical patients.
04:19And then we'll say, okay, give this guy this antibiotic this many times a day for this many days.
04:23You don't want it to become a big Charlie Fox drive.
04:26So let's just do what we can do.
04:35My name is Matt Griffin.
04:36I'm a co-founder and CEO of Combat Flip Flops.
04:39It's a company.
04:41We make cool stuff in dangerous places.
04:42We go to conflict areas or post-conflict areas.
04:46We use Special Operations Veterans and the network that we've created there.
04:51And we go and find people that want to do business.
04:54And we make small manufacturing businesses.
04:56And we teach them how to work on a Western level.
04:58And we spec product with them and build a relationship.
05:01And then teach them how to ship product all over the world.
05:03And we use a portion of the profits to go back to help their local community.
05:07We started by making flip-flops in Afghanistan.
05:09And now we're making sarongs and scarves and cashmere in Afghanistan in a woman-owned factory.
05:15Putting little girls in Afghanistan to school.
05:17Which is important because if you educate a woman, you educate a family.
05:21You educate a family, you educate communities.
05:22And then pretty soon you have an educated country and can't enslave an educated population.
05:28So we sell products and we donate money to these guys.
05:30And it's awesome to be able to take these Special Operations Veterans,
05:34the best medics in the world with all this training that we've invested millions of dollars of taxpayers into.
05:39And continue to use them as a national asset to put a big smiley face on America around the world.
05:45And it's pretty cool.
05:46All right.
05:46Well, we're going to go to what's called Kiparata Saka.
05:49We're going there because we have a good relationship with them.
05:52We've been going there for about four years now.
05:55We were going to have a cement building that they use as a clinic.
05:58It's a real clinic.
05:59During clinic, it gets a little crazy.
06:01Because they don't have TV.
06:03We're a TV for them.
06:04You know what I mean?
06:04We're their TV.
06:05So anything going on, everybody comes.
06:08Because normally you're going in by boat.
06:10Only going by boat.
06:12So for me, we walked the dirt roads and then we'd go off into the jungle.
06:17But those dirt roads continue.
06:19So for me, it's all new.
06:20And trying to get an answer out of these guys about the road conditions was not very helpful.
06:27Our first objective is to pick up our translator in Rio Dulce.
06:30Apparently, Wilmer is only one of a few people that can speak our destination's dialect of Mayan as well as
06:37Spanish and English.
06:43So we just met up with Wilmer, who is our local Mayan guide and translator.
06:49And what he's going to do is he's going to take us into the villages where we're going to put
06:52on the clinics over the next two days with Team 5.
06:58Heading into the jungle, a few questions started to form about the credibility of our guide.
07:03Wilmer, have you been on this road before?
07:06I don't know.
07:08You don't know?
07:09No.
07:10Where are you taking us?
07:11Where are you taking us?
07:17We take several turns left and right, west and east, through a labyrinth of roads.
07:26It eventually becomes apparent that our guide doesn't know where he is.
07:46The Wilmer's got some good intel from the local gentleman here.
07:53We missed a turn somewhere along the way, so we're going to backtrack a bit, and we're going to find
07:58it.
07:58With new bearings, we kicked up the pace to make the village by dark.
08:03The trail goes through many shallow water crossings, and the exhilaration of wheeling deep in the thick jungle kicked up
08:09the adventure factor.
08:19Except for the hammer, nothing seems to faze him.
08:22And I'm like super stoked.
08:24I'm like, that was sick!
08:25And we're turning around, and I was like, isn't your heart pumping?
08:27He's like, no, no shots were fired, so I'm good.
08:31Sorry guys.
08:34Occasionally, we come across farmers, and we confirm that our heading is still correct.
08:40Good job.
08:42Third time's the charm for Wilmer.
08:44Wilmer's just having fun.
08:45Yeah.
08:46How many people are in your village?
08:4714.
08:4840.
08:48About 40, yeah.
08:50And you've lived in your village your whole life?
08:52Yeah.
08:52Yeah, it's only village.
08:54The only village?
08:55Yeah, only village.
08:55Night has fallen, and the jungle becomes alive as we pull up to the village.
09:10Wilmer finds the village elder, and we make our acquaintances.
09:28The power won't be on until morning, so the bulk of the setup will have to wait.
09:32So we're good.
09:33We'll set up over here then, and then we'll get the keys.
09:36With his blessing, we set up camp in the yard, and remove the locks to the clinic.
09:43This is amazing.
09:45I mean, who'd ever thought we'd be here?
09:51I'm just, I'm humbled.
09:53I'm just so humbled by what's happening right now, and thankful.
09:58I can't wait for tomorrow.
10:01So if you come in here, I'll show you some of the stuff.
10:04We donated everything that's in here.
10:06See, we've donated all of the stuff here.
10:08This is an ACLS bag that we made them, the Advanced Cardiac Life Support Bag.
10:13Oh, wow.
10:13So if they have somebody injured, they grab this backpack, and they go out to where the guy's
10:17at, and everything they need is in here.
10:19This is a full-on pack of what we brought.
10:22We've been traveling with these Team 5 guys, and just getting to hear them and their story,
10:27and their heart for being able to go to places like this.
10:30And it's just, to be able to meet guys like that, the guys that have served our country,
10:34and they've done so much for us, and then get to work right alongside them, it's just awesome.
10:51We're in the Amazon.
10:53No, we're not.
10:53We're in the Mayan village.
10:55Guatemala.
10:56Not the Amazon.
10:57I want to tell them.
11:00No.
11:00So what we're doing here tonight is we're going to make chili, but actually we're going to lay down a
11:03bed.
11:04I've got cans.
11:07That's what I'm going to call it.
11:08I'm going to call it I've got cans.
11:10One time while we were up in Montana in the Priors, all we had was instant mashed potatoes and chili.
11:15So what you do is you make a nice bowl of mashed potatoes, and you fill it with chili.
11:19And it's muy bien.
11:22So that's what we're making for dinner.
11:39I've been working overseas for a long time.
11:41The climate started when I was traveling with my father in the Middle East.
11:45We were in Lebanon, Syria, and Israel during the war.
11:50Went to medical school, did my residency in general surgery, plastic surgery, and burns in critical care.
11:55Was in the military for a while, then did a lot of relief work in South America, Central America,
11:59and ended up in Afghanistan and Pakistan for about eight years training third country nationals in plastic surgery.
12:05I don't golf, so it was just one of those things where you're best needed.
12:09Eric tracked me down somewhere after the military, and here I am.
12:13We just kind of go to the areas no one else will.
12:16How many years?
12:17Nine.
12:18Nine years.
12:19One's nine years old, but we're here because of people like Juan.
12:23We try to impart the same values on our children that we see these kids.
12:26They don't have iPads.
12:27They don't have Xboxes.
12:29They're not sitting in front of TV, yet they're happy.
12:31They're playing.
12:33And when you get away on these trips, it kind of grounds you.
12:35It unplugs you.
12:37I tell my kids it doesn't plug you from day to day back home, but it plugs you into life.
12:41And it plugs you into living.
12:43It's fun to hang out with guys like Juan.
12:45Juan.
12:46Juan.
12:49These docks are type A's.
12:51Straight up go-getters.
12:53And it seems like they are capable of anything.
12:56The word of the clinic being open has spread to the outside villages.
13:01And people are starting to gather as we make our final preps to take on the day.
13:08Can we get somebody to help us?
13:10We need to clean it, put a clean sheet on it.
13:12Yeah.
13:14Hold up.
13:15Typically we have five people, about a thousand people through here in five days.
13:19So the faster we can get the cycle time down, get them treated and get them out of here,
13:22the more people we can help.
13:23So this is a long, boring, and tedious process of sorting events.
13:29I have my legs right in.
13:30We're setting up our water filtration system so we can take well water from the village here.
13:36That is clean, but not pure.
13:38Definitely not for use for medical water inside the clinic.
13:41So we're running it through our filtration system, which is a three filter system including a UV light on the
13:46tail end.
13:47However, we've just hooked this up for the first time.
13:49We haven't field tested it and it's leaking bad, like probably losing 50% of our water.
13:55So we're in the process right now of trying to track down the leaks, tighten up the fittings,
13:58and hopefully we can get this thing working so that we've got a good water supply to keep them going
14:03in the clinic.
14:04So this thing seals up against the bottom, keeps water from getting up in that section.
14:09So that's exactly what the problem is.
14:12Boo.
14:13Bummer.
14:14Man, that's a major fail.
14:15Yep.
14:17Kurt, the engineer, is quick to find solutions.
14:20We're going to antiviral using the SteriPens.
14:22Got it.
14:23So we're going to go through our two mechanical filters, which will get large stuff out,
14:26and we'll use the SteriPen for the last system.
14:29A gallon at a time.
14:31A gallon at a time, correct.
14:32But that's okay.
14:33That's plenty for what we need today.
14:35Correct.
14:35Please.
14:38Inside, Jeff is receiving instructions on how to handle the medicines that he has been tasked with managing.
14:44And they go like that, and I just drop it around.
14:46And I go, no, no, chew it.
14:47It's like chalk, basically.
14:49And they don't want to eat it.
14:51And then for every kid that you give that to, you can also give a sticker, you know.
14:55Yeah, they're getting tattoos.
14:56Yeah, they get tattoos.
14:58They get a sticker.
14:59Save the toothbrushes until after they're seen by the doctors.
15:03Yep.
15:04That's the idea.
15:05Because we have toothbrushes for them.
15:06So I decided to make labels.
15:08And here you have a half sun, so that's coming up in the morning.
15:12There will pull sun for the midday.
15:15And then we have a moon for night time.
15:17So what we'll do is I'll write on here.
15:19This is going to be the prescription.
15:20So I'm going to write on the label, and I'm going to say amoxicillin.
15:26And I'll put one at night, one at, and one in the morning.
15:31I think we're probably going to knock out about 50 people today.
15:3460 people.
15:35However many.
15:36I mean, they're lining up.
15:38We've got to be out by 2 o'clock.
15:40Before long, the clinic is in full swing.
15:43When you go on a mission, there are several different elements to it.
15:47One, you have to identify what you're going to do.
15:49You have to identify the patients.
15:51We call it target acquisition.
15:53We need to find out where the needs are.
15:56Everyone pitches in.
15:57It's going to be hot.
15:58It's going to be wet.
15:59It's going to be humid.
16:00We're going to get mosquitoes biting us where we really don't want to be bit.
16:05At the end of the day, we'll be tired, smelly, and hopefully help a lot of people.
16:12So he has to run around in bare feet all the time.
16:14If you notice, around this village, there's a lot of turkeys and chickens and all other
16:18animals running around.
16:19And so that gets a lot of worms and stuff in the ground, and it hits my boy here through
16:23his feet.
16:24So this is a deworming medication that we put.
16:27It's all really expensive stuff.
16:29And the way this works is that this medication will paralyze the worm inside the kids so that
16:33way they can pass it.
16:34But it's something we have to do every time we come here.
16:36Every person.
16:38So that's it.
16:39My boy, Freddie, good to go.
16:40A simple deworming pill will change a life here.
16:43It allows a person to get all the nutrition in their food rather than a parasite robbing
16:48it from them.
16:51Our dentist, that's supposed to be here, is nowhere to be found.
16:56We're headed to a village around 15 minutes or so, that's what we're told, 15 minutes from
17:01here, in search of a dentist.
17:04Mariano here is going to be our translator, as is Kurt.
17:08So we got a little system to go through.
17:10But yeah, the dentist we had hoped to be here is not, is no longer working in this area.
17:15So we need to go find another one.
17:17And we're just hoping this other dentist will work with us.
17:20He doesn't even know what we're looking for.
17:22So the hope is we can go say, hey, team five has some equipment they will give you if you
17:27come work with us because this dentist does work.
17:30Two or three minutes?
17:33Yeah, it's okay.
17:34Yeah, it's okay.
17:35Okay.
17:36No, I'm saying he's another different village right now, so we're going to go find him.
17:57Tools?
17:58Si.
17:59Instrumento?
18:00Si.
18:01Ah.
18:02Yeah.
18:03I think they had tools there, right?
18:04Dentist tools?
18:05Yep.
18:05Dentist tools and drugs.
18:07Yeah.
18:08And he has equipment.
18:09Forehand.
18:09It's equipment.
18:11Yeah.
18:12Hay de todo?
18:13Todo, si.
18:15Sounds like this gentleman is willing to help us out.
18:18We just kind of walked into his village and into his house.
18:21He was just hanging out.
18:22He's going to put some clothes on and grab his tool kit, you know, his medicine kit, and roll with
18:29this.
18:30So, and he seems like a pretty happy guy more than willing to help.
18:33So we're very grateful for that.
18:36Especially coming into a jungle in the middle of nowhere.
18:39This is kind of a crazy deal.
18:48You work with Brian, right?
18:50You work with Dr. Brian.
18:55I brought in anesthesia.
18:57Anesthesia.
18:59And then I brought you needles.
19:02Okay?
19:03So it's good.
19:04We're going to work in here.
19:07I'm now running a makeshift pharmacy.
19:11Make sure I get the right prescriptions, the right people out.
19:16Wilmer, does he have any tools for pulling?
19:18And making sure I don't label things wrong.
19:21Finally getting some systems worked out.
19:23The amount of volume of people that we have, the amount of workers that we have.
19:29And they're needing certain systems.
19:31So I'm keeping track of how many we're deworming.
19:35And then when there's vitals that need to be taken, we take vitals.
19:40And then a piece of paper will go back to the doctors with the vitals.
19:44So they have like a bit of a soap note before they have to start whatever they're doing
19:49with the problem that they're dealing with.
19:51The local nurse is also getting some direction from the docs.
19:54We're going to prescribe the drugs, and then she's going to hold on to the drugs
19:57that we don't have a lot of, like the eye drops that are Cipro.
20:01And what she's going to do is we'll prescribe it, and then every day they'll come to her,
20:06to her house, and she'll administer the drops for them.
20:09That way we can use the same bottle for a lot of people,
20:13because if I send one bottle home, it only treats one patient,
20:16and they don't need all those drops.
20:17So that's what she's getting right now is a crash course from Keith.
20:22Just feet away in the other room, the dentist is already at work.
20:33So, well, one, I just killed the scorpion right behind me sitting on the wall.
20:37Two, this guy's a beast.
20:39This dentist has, I saw him, two or three guys just pulling teeth,
20:45just throwing them in a bucket.
20:46Just tooth, tooth, tooth.
20:48Oh, he didn't even have it!
20:50Oh!
20:51Oh!
20:54Oh!
20:55Look at that molar.
20:57Look at the root on that thing.
20:59And he's still smiling!
21:01I cannot believe that this happened.
21:03I was cringing for the man.
21:06In America, we have these places where you can put headphones on,
21:09and they'll put you to sleep.
21:10It's all tranquil.
21:11Oh, yeah.
21:11You're like, oh, you don't even have to see it.
21:13Playing in the background.
21:14No, here, they just sit down, tear a tooth out, walk away, and go back to work.
21:17This is awesome.
21:18Yeah.
21:19Nuts.
21:21Right now, he's helping this guy.
21:22This guy's got a broken tooth, and there are pieces still up in his mouth,
21:28and he's digging them out.
21:30This guy's hurting bad, but he's holding it.
21:33They're strong, man.
21:35I mean, they're just taking it.
21:37I don't know if they're getting shots or anything, but they're just taking it.
21:40And as you can see right now, he's just helping them,
21:44trying to get as much of that tooth out as possible.
21:47God, it looks painful.
21:55He just walks out the back door.
21:59These dudes are hardy.
22:00These are hardy dudes.
22:01About midway through the day, an interesting case comes through the door.
22:05A young girl has an odd lump on her back.
22:11Doc hops on the sat phone for a consult with one of his colleagues.
22:16I'm calling you from the jungle in Guatemala.
22:19I need a consult real quick.
22:22I've got a little girl.
22:24She's nine years old.
22:25She was brought in by her family, an otherwise healthy child,
22:29with a mass on her back.
22:34Thanks, brother.
22:35Talk to you soon.
22:37All right, bye.
22:39It's a full go, guys.
22:42It may be a teratoma.
22:43He thinks that, I mean, like I was thinking, that tumor, it's a teratoma.
22:46We really don't know.
22:47The answer is no one knows, but we're definitely going to take it.
22:51And she'll be fine.
22:52This is important because this is going to help her change her life.
22:55Well, it is.
22:56Because a lot of times in these villages especially, they're not going to get married.
22:59I mean, no one's going to want to, you know, it's like they're defective.
23:02Yeah.
23:03At least a lot of places I work when we do clefts and stuff, they consider them defective.
23:06So you have to fix them so they can, okay.
23:09But this will help this little girl out.
23:11What are we doing?
23:11Well, we just packed up.
23:13They decided to do the surgery on their girl's tumor.
23:16I think it's a tumor tomorrow morning.
23:19It's really hot and buggy, so we're going to make our way.
23:23The day is just too hot to perform the surgery.
23:26About a mile away, a boat is waiting to take us to a cool location.
23:30Team 5 has made special arrangements with their contacts at the Finca.
23:34I got 3G right there.
23:36That's funny.
23:42See you, brother.
23:43Pretty happy.
23:45We're going to a place called the Finca by boat down this shallow, narrow, windy river.
23:52So we're looking for an adventure right now.
23:54A time to relax and enjoy the evening.
23:57Go to a place we've never been, you know.
24:10We travel across a lake and then up a windy river for over an hour.
24:14Then, through the jungle, along the bank, a jungle hideout comes into view.
24:19That's pretty good.
24:21Luis.
24:21Luis.
24:22Luis.
24:23Luis.
24:23Nice to meet you, Luis.
24:24Nice to meet you.
24:26I'm going to be in that lake in about five.
24:29The Finca is something out of Pirates of the Caribbean.
24:34This is amazing.
24:36I've never seen this at all.
24:39Ever.
24:40Nice to meet you.
24:41Nice to meet you.
24:47Nice to meet you.
24:48With dinner cooking over an open fire, tropical rain pours off the jungle's leaves.
24:56After a long hot day, there's nothing better than a good dunk in the river.
25:26We gather to enjoy each other's company and partake in the best meal of the expedition so far.
25:33Our conversations roam from survival to expedition planning, a little ribbing, end of the day's events.
25:40Something none of us will ever forget.
25:44It's remarkable how this whole experience is already starting to make an impact on us.
25:50But tomorrow is the real deal.
25:53A life-changing surgery awaits for a little girl.
26:25Why do you believe we were burning?
26:25Who helped me up in a foray by the past couple years?
26:33hein of the seaterer team..
26:37I know?
26:40How do I do?
26:40In a co-authorism on your mind.
26:41We'll do you own any more polors.
26:41We will get But Tocks!
26:41We will remove everything from the sea.
26:41Means Obviously the ***
26:42Why don't you believe it?
26:43The commonly seen95 pig ask that,
26:43Highlyisolated motorcycle-likeiero....
26:45hills is above 1?
26:45Lots of sets of miles..nen
26:48top지가 room đây.
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