Jackie Sario’s mother needed help. As an immigrant from Japan, Hisako was quite proficient in her second homeland, United States of America. She passed her citizenship exam and had a job in the county school system. She read the newspaper and watched the news without any communication issues. She had many English-speaking friends and had no problems making herself understood. Still, when she became ill and began to spend significant amount of time within the medical industry, she discovered that it was difficult to comprehend everything her doctors discussed with her. Jackie, being fluent in Japanese and English, became her Medical Facilitator for years, making sure both Hisako and the medical professionals understood each other perfectly until she passed on. When Jackie’s facilitator here in Cuenca became too busy with her successful visa and Cedula facilitation business, Jackie tried few other facilitators to help translate for her and her husband at their various doctor appointments. Even though all of them were kind and well-meaning, they did not meet the standards that Jackie had with her experience translating for her mother. Then Jackie met Stephanie Ortiz. Stephanie, from her university studies as a tourism major, spoke outstanding English and was extremely professional and kind from the moment they met. Because of personal tragedy within her family, Stephanie developed an unusually operative understanding of the medical system here in her home city of Cuenca. The two of them decided to become partners in a new exclusive service of medical advocacy, Expat Medical Facilitators.
