Dr. Keith Brown has recently come back from a trip to help patients in Cambodia for free. Photograph taken Thursday, June 15, 2006. Photo by David B. Parker.BERYL CHONG
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL (Nevada, USA)
6/20/2006
Thirty six years ago, duty brought Navy Corpsman Keith Brown to Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. Now a doctor, Brown returned to Cambodia a month ago on a mission of love.
"It gets into my belief in the Bible that we are told to go to the world and spread the gospel of Jesus Christ and that gospel is all about love and caring," said Brown, a gynecologist at Northern Nevada Medical Center and Sparks resident. Brown also is an associate professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, School of Medicine.
On May 2, Brown and 20 other people from the Truckee Meadows including his son, Dr. Kevin Brown and other area physicians, nurses, medical personnel and about a dozen other volunteers left for Phnom Penh, the capitol city.
"God has given me a gift and I should use that gift to help not only poor people in Reno but also people throughout the world," Keith Brown said.
The 10-day trip, which he organized with the help of missionaries in Cambodia, was arranged as a result of hearing about the needs of the country from a missionary who was hosted by Brown's church, South Reno Baptist Church on South McCarran Boulevard.
The trip to Cambodia is his seventh. Brown had served on other missions to give free treatment to residents living in Ecuador and Tajikistan.
Brown's positive experiences during other missions inspired him to do more.
"People over there said, 'Thank you,'" Brown said. "They are very grateful. The thank yous are a memorable thing. People don't say thank you in the United States. There, they are so thankful."
Others who went on the trip echo Brown's experience. Awed by the gratitude, they can't wait to return.
"The people were so eager and friendly to have us there," said Stewart Tatem, a Reno pediatrician who has practised for 10 years. "We were very moved. It was an honor to be a part of that. Everyone on the team feels that way."
It took six months to put the trip together, Brown said. The group met several times so people could get to know each other and learn about the Cambodian culture. They also learned to say "hello" and "good-bye" in Cambodian and spent time raising $40,000 to fund the trip.
"There are needy people in this country but the poorest of poor in this country are wealthy compared to the poor in Cambodia," he said.
Members left this country armed with two suitcases per person, one for personal belongings and the other packed with medical supplies, medications and coloring books for children.
They performed surgeries at the government-run hospital in Phnom Penh, and visited villages near the town Siem Reap to treat the country's citizens, many of whom had never seen a doctor. Patients were bused in to where the doctors, nurses and volunteers had set up makeshift offices. Some waited several days for a chance to be examined by American doctors.
"There was no paperwork. That's what made it unique. So all you see are patients," Brown said.
During the trip, the team gave medical care to 700 Cambodians and Vietnamese -- babies, adults and the elderly -- who live in the country.
With the help of translators, they treated people for diseases rarely seen in the United States -- malaria, typhoid fever, dengue fever, food and airborne diseases, and Japanese Encephalitis.
They worked under conditions, such as daily temperatures reaching 116 degrees with 90 percent humidity, virtually unheard of in the United States.
A table and stethoscope often made up an office on one day and a bed inside a house a stilts served as a makeshift examination table on another day. The doctors, nurses and volunteers would wake up early in the mornings to treat patients, eat sandwiches on the run and continue seeing patients until evening. Kevin Brown plans to return to Cambodia for another mission trip with his wife and two young children.
"I would like my kids to grow up knowing, seeing and helping," said Kevin Brown, who pulled 80 teeth during the mission. "They can help play with the children who are waiting (to be treated). It's a different world. It has made me appreciate what we have."
Although tired, the team members wanted to see as many patients as possible during their trip which lasted until May 13.
"I have a saying, 'The love of missions is in the faces of the children,'" Keith Brown said.
"You receive an inner peace because you receive a personal blessing by being a blessing to other people."
Since coming home to Sparks, Keith Brown has not forgotten the faces of the people he met and helped. A screen saver on his home computer replays photographs from his trip.
He plans to organize another mission to Cambodia next year.
"Everybody that goes on a mission trip, you, yourself, come back being blessed because you feel so good about what you have done," said Keith Brown, who has practiced medicine for 23 years.
It's the faces of young children with wide smiles living in poverty who stay on his mind. It's the woman with a large facial tumor they couldn't help who haunts him. It's another woman who died of terminal cancer days after examining her who makes him wish he could do more.
Maybe, next time, he can help others before it's too late, Brown said.
"What if your child lived in one of these boats?" said Keith Brown, pointing to a photograph. "Wouldn't you want somebody to come help you? If these were your children, wouldn't you want a well-trained American doctor to come take care of their ills? Even though it was a short period of time, we developed a relationship with the people. We fell in love with the people."
"It gets into my belief in the Bible that we are told to go to the world and spread the gospel of Jesus Christ and that gospel is all about love and caring," said Brown, a gynecologist at Northern Nevada Medical Center and Sparks resident. Brown also is an associate professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, School of Medicine.
On May 2, Brown and 20 other people from the Truckee Meadows including his son, Dr. Kevin Brown and other area physicians, nurses, medical personnel and about a dozen other volunteers left for Phnom Penh, the capitol city.
"God has given me a gift and I should use that gift to help not only poor people in Reno but also people throughout the world," Keith Brown said.
The 10-day trip, which he organized with the help of missionaries in Cambodia, was arranged as a result of hearing about the needs of the country from a missionary who was hosted by Brown's church, South Reno Baptist Church on South McCarran Boulevard.
The trip to Cambodia is his seventh. Brown had served on other missions to give free treatment to residents living in Ecuador and Tajikistan.
Brown's positive experiences during other missions inspired him to do more.
"People over there said, 'Thank you,'" Brown said. "They are very grateful. The thank yous are a memorable thing. People don't say thank you in the United States. There, they are so thankful."
Others who went on the trip echo Brown's experience. Awed by the gratitude, they can't wait to return.
"The people were so eager and friendly to have us there," said Stewart Tatem, a Reno pediatrician who has practised for 10 years. "We were very moved. It was an honor to be a part of that. Everyone on the team feels that way."
It took six months to put the trip together, Brown said. The group met several times so people could get to know each other and learn about the Cambodian culture. They also learned to say "hello" and "good-bye" in Cambodian and spent time raising $40,000 to fund the trip.
"There are needy people in this country but the poorest of poor in this country are wealthy compared to the poor in Cambodia," he said.
Members left this country armed with two suitcases per person, one for personal belongings and the other packed with medical supplies, medications and coloring books for children.
They performed surgeries at the government-run hospital in Phnom Penh, and visited villages near the town Siem Reap to treat the country's citizens, many of whom had never seen a doctor. Patients were bused in to where the doctors, nurses and volunteers had set up makeshift offices. Some waited several days for a chance to be examined by American doctors.
"There was no paperwork. That's what made it unique. So all you see are patients," Brown said.
During the trip, the team gave medical care to 700 Cambodians and Vietnamese -- babies, adults and the elderly -- who live in the country.
With the help of translators, they treated people for diseases rarely seen in the United States -- malaria, typhoid fever, dengue fever, food and airborne diseases, and Japanese Encephalitis.
They worked under conditions, such as daily temperatures reaching 116 degrees with 90 percent humidity, virtually unheard of in the United States.
A table and stethoscope often made up an office on one day and a bed inside a house a stilts served as a makeshift examination table on another day. The doctors, nurses and volunteers would wake up early in the mornings to treat patients, eat sandwiches on the run and continue seeing patients until evening. Kevin Brown plans to return to Cambodia for another mission trip with his wife and two young children.
"I would like my kids to grow up knowing, seeing and helping," said Kevin Brown, who pulled 80 teeth during the mission. "They can help play with the children who are waiting (to be treated). It's a different world. It has made me appreciate what we have."
Although tired, the team members wanted to see as many patients as possible during their trip which lasted until May 13.
"I have a saying, 'The love of missions is in the faces of the children,'" Keith Brown said.
"You receive an inner peace because you receive a personal blessing by being a blessing to other people."
Since coming home to Sparks, Keith Brown has not forgotten the faces of the people he met and helped. A screen saver on his home computer replays photographs from his trip.
He plans to organize another mission to Cambodia next year.
"Everybody that goes on a mission trip, you, yourself, come back being blessed because you feel so good about what you have done," said Keith Brown, who has practiced medicine for 23 years.
It's the faces of young children with wide smiles living in poverty who stay on his mind. It's the woman with a large facial tumor they couldn't help who haunts him. It's another woman who died of terminal cancer days after examining her who makes him wish he could do more.
Maybe, next time, he can help others before it's too late, Brown said.
"What if your child lived in one of these boats?" said Keith Brown, pointing to a photograph. "Wouldn't you want somebody to come help you? If these were your children, wouldn't you want a well-trained American doctor to come take care of their ills? Even though it was a short period of time, we developed a relationship with the people. We fell in love with the people."
2 comments:
Honestly I don't trust any man who is a gynecologist. I would think twice about sending my wife to a gynecologist especially he is a man. I mean no man should have the right to look my wife private part only me can do that! This kind of job should belong to a woman because it takes a woman to understand another woman.
By the way, I am not being conservative or being religeous! It is a woman that we that we are dealing with here! You can look but you can't touch!ahahhaah
Hhahaahah just give us the medicine no need to spread about religion, Cambodia already have buddha. Please just give us aid not HIV. Do we neeed a gynecologist in Cambodia? I dont think so.
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