The mission and Porter Hospital brought Sovannara to Denver for a procedure called "TIPS." (Photo: CBS)May 14, 2007
Kathy Walsh Reporting
CBS4 (Denver, Colorado)
"I think we definitely helped her out ... We may have saved her life."A group of Colorado volunteer doctors helped a young woman who traveled more than 8,000 miles to Denver for a medical procedure that could save her life.
Twenty-year-old Sovannara Choun has spent 70 percent of the last 5 years in a hospital in Cambodia. She came to Colorado with the hope for a chance at a normal life after an infection, rarely seen in the United States, damaged her liver.
The doctors took a CAT scan at Porter Adventist Hospital and confirmed the liver damage. They feared Sovannara would bleed to death.
"It's almost like a ticking time bomb to have this problem," Dr. Joey Steele from Invision Imaging radiology said.
The problem started when Sovannara was a child. She was infected with a parasite from the Mekong River near her rural home in Cambodia.
"It's a worm that actually gets into your body and works its way up to your liver," Steele said.
By the time doctors killed the worm, it had already attacked the organ, blocking the blood flow. Sovannara often bleeds into her stomach.
"It's very hard," Sovannara said through a translator.
The group of doctors first saw Sovannara in October on a Christian mission to Cambodia called Jeremiah's Hope. All they could do there were transfusions, but back in Denver they knew there was a procedure that offered promise.
"The liver itself works very well," Steele said. "It's just the blood can't get to the liver."
The mission and Porter Hospital brought Sovannara to Denver for a procedure called "TIPS." After making just a tiny incision, Steele worked a foot long needle into Sovannara's jugular vein while using an X-ray to guide it through her liver, and then to another vein.
Steele then inserted a mesh metal tube called a "shunt" to connect two major blood vessels, rerouting the blood flow. It all took just an hour and there was no need for stitches.
"I think we definitely helped her out," Steele said. "We may have saved her life."
Sovannara was out of the hospital after three days and recovered at the home of a Cambodian pastor. She left Denver Sunday, just 12 days after the procedure. A little sooner than doctors would've liked, but they feel very good about her prognosis.
Additional Resources
For more information on Invision Imaging radiology, visit www.InvisionImaging.com.
For more information on Christian Medical Ministry to Cambodia and Jeremiah's Hope, visit www.cmmcjh.com.
3 comments:
The Shistosome parasite infected many people in the upper mekong river until 1995 when MOH team and Medecin Sans Frontieres started launching an eradication campaign for many years.
Thank American volunteer Doctors and Porter Adventist Hospital of Colorado for your precious help to this poor girl.
From an anomymous Cambodian Doctor.
J. C. Dumurgier has tried to do the porto-jugular anastomosis many years ago at Calmette but the patients survived only a few months after the operations. TIPS is a remarkable technique requiring top notched equipments. It would be awesome if TIPs is available in Cambodia because there are many more patients (mostly from high land areas like kratie, kompongcham and stung treng)that are just like Sovannara.
They hav done their moral duty.... others should learn how one do work for humanity..
Debera
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