Monday, August 30, 2010

Northeast Ohio: Local priest helping overseas loses priceless item

8/29/2010
Amanda Barren
WKYC (Cleveland, Ohio, USA)


CLEVELAND -- A priest from the Cleveland area who has been doing medical outreach work in Cambodia for the last several years came home hoping to help, but he hit a serious roadblock.

Kevin Conroy made the trip home to Northeast Ohio earlier this week for a variety of reasons.

On the list: speak at the graduation of nursing students from Cleveland State University, celebrate his elderly father's birthday, officiate at the wedding of a nephew and to help a young woman in Cambodia who is battling a rare disease.

She's a young woman who had to truly go the extra mile to even get any kind of medical attention.

"I brought (to Cleveland) an x-ray that I'd sent a person to Vietnam to get because we don't have that in Cambodia. This x-ray was to help us determine if she had a disease called Takayasu Arteritis," Conroy said.

Takayasu Arteritis is a disease that affects primarily women between the ages of 20 to 40 in Southeast Asia.

It inflames arteries and the aorta. The roadblock came when the bag that Conroy brought the x-ray CD home in disappeared. The bag was either taken or misplaced.

It also had other valuables in it, but Conroy says he is not worried about those things. His concern is about the x-rays which he says are priceless.

"It is, it's very difficult when you work with people who don't have any access to medicine and spent five years trying to get somebody to help her with her treatment," Conroy says.

Conroy was hoping some of his friends in the medical field here in Cleveland could help him find some kind of answers for this young woman. Her name is Sreyneth and she is 26-years-old.

He's retraced his steps trying to find his bag, with no luck.

There is nothing out of the ordinary about the bag that would help identify it.

It's black with a yellow handle. Conroy says his name is on things inside the bag.

Anyone with information can contact Kevin at Kevinconro@gmail.com.

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