Eduardo Magana: Teenager Faces Life Or Death

Jesse Rosenberg ― SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) ― It isn't very often you run into teenagers who have the courage to tell a person that they will die. Eduardo Magana is among a select few that voluntarily flew to the Dominican Republic to do this. He went on a medical mission trip with Somos Amigos, a non-profit organization catered to running medical and dental clinics.

"It's a program where we fly down to a rural area in the Dominican Republic and provide free health and dental care," said Eduardo.

Eduardo served as a Spanish translator for doctors and patients in El Naranjito, a small mountain village in the Dominican Republic.

Most people are subsistent farmers, making a living on tiny plots of land where plumbing is a luxury.

12 years ago, Frank Brightwell, Founder and Director of Somos Amigos, visited the Dominican Republic. He determined that there was a lack of medical care. That's when he decided to start this medical mission.


"The hardest part was noticing that there is so much you could do that people aren't doing and that some people you just cant help because you don't have the resources," said Eduardo.

He spent a good 7 days working with patients and their children. As the interpreter, he often had to tell patients whether they were going to live or die.

"We take so many things for granted. This lady had major headaches and we went down there and gave her pills. That little medicine bottle changed her life."

As a young boy, Eduardo grew up living in fear. There was little or no money in the house. He saw his stepfather beat his mother.

Doctor William Rhine, a professor of pediatrics at Stanford University, spent time working with Eduardo.

"Despite his family's struggles with domestic violence, Eduardo was not in the least way angry or resentful about his circumstances; indeed, if anything, his hardships seem to have led him to be even more giving and more selfless," says Rhine.

Eduardo will be attending UC Santa Barbara this fall, and he plans to join a fraternity and also continue his travels abroad.

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