In honour of the late Dr Donald Dean, Canford continues to provide annual funding to support Old Canfordians undertaking their medical electives. The award recognises Dr Dean’s lifelong commitment to medicine and global health, during which he helped develop medical services internationally, including in Nigeria and Kuwait. Further details about the award can be found here.

This year, OC Miles Quick C21 was a recipient of the award and shares his experience from his elective placement in Guatemala:

In March 2026 myself and three other final year medical students from Barts and the London school of medicine and dentistry travelled to Central America for just over 10 weeks. To begin the trip we flew into Mexico City and spent the next 3 weeks venturing around Mexico visiting the popular Oaxaca and Chiapas provinces before descending into Guatemala ready to begin our medical elective. We spent a brief week exploring some of the more touristy areas in Guatemala such as Antigua and Lake Atitlan before travelling to the lesser-known Lake Amatitlán. Commonly mistaken for the beautiful Lake Atitlan, Amatitlán sadly did not share the same natural beauty as its counterpart. However, the rather grandiose accommodation we found ourselves in for the next 4 weeks more than made up for it (below).

The hospital we were scheduled to work in was a government hospital called National Hospital Amatitlán. Here we had organised to meet our Guatemalan supervisor and mentor, Dr Armando Alvarado, a consultant of Intensive care medicine. Dr Armando was tremendously excited upon our arrival and saw us getting involved in critical care procedures and teaching almost immediately.

After the brief excitement Dr Armando took us on a comprehensive tour of the hospital which had sadly been hit by a devastating earthquake 6 months before our arrival leaving half the hospital in ruins. We quickly realised the lack of resources and funding available to the hospital, a stark contrast to that of the modern hospitals in London. Dr Armando then explained to us that we would be spending most of our time in the Intensive care department which consisted of 12 beds in a field hospital-esque barn type building with only a drape separating it from the neighboring “ward”.

After meeting most of the intensive care team and exchanging some poor Spanish small talk, we were given the rest of the day off to acclimatise to our new accommodation. Dr Armando then highlighted the touristy and more exciting things to do in the area for us to explore on our time off. We made sure to make the most of the incredible hiking around the neighboring volcano Amatitlán and also the brilliant lead rock climbing available in the local area.

Over the next four weeks we spent a lot of time in the intensive care department with Dr Armando and his colleagues. He would organize regular teaching for us from some of his junior doctors which included ultrasound techniques used to visualize different structures within the lungs and heart with associated pathologies. Due to the lack of resources and general equipment the Guatemalan doctors were extremely proficient at using what little they had to make a huge difference. There was no access to CT or MRI machines and no portable x-ray machine, which are all vital diagnostic and therapeutic tools that are most certainly taken for granted in the UK. Following these teaching sessions we were then able to carry out technical procedures such as central and arterial lines when the opportunities presented themself.

We were also able to assist in very technical procedures such as tracheostomies, bronchoscopies, intubating and drain insertion. Overall, we gained a huge amount of practical clinical experience preparing us well for our return to the UK.

After a few weeks Dr Armando offered for us to join him in some of his private clinics in Guatemala City showcasing his wide range of medical expertise. We were also able to spend some time in obstetric theatre assisting with delivering babies via cesarean section and other surgical procedures.

Overall, we had an amazing time and Dr Armando was a brilliant teacher and mentor allowing us to feel comfortable and welcome in a very foreign environment that was certainly challenging at points. As a way of saying thank you we all went out for a meal together in Guatemala City on our final evening, rounding off an incredible trip.

We were then lucky enough to have another month of travelling through central America, visiting El Salvador, Nicaragua and finally flying out of Costa Rica returning to the UK to begin our foundation training.

I wanted to say thank you to Canford School for granting me the Dr Dean Medical Award bursary, allowing me to undertake this medical elective, it would not have been possible otherwise. If this sounds appealing to you as a final year medical student and you are keen to undertake a similar medical elective, I would be more than happy to put you in touch with Dr Armando as he was a brilliant supervisor. Please feel free to get in touch.

Find out more about the Donald Dean Medic's Award here.