August 01, 2011
By Yim Seung-hye [sharon@joongang.co.kr]
Korea Joongang Daily
Seven-year-old Loeng Sonisa received the gift of life last Monday after receiving an all-expenses-paid heart surgery at Soon Chun Hyang University Hospital in Bucheon, Gyeonggi.
Loeng Sonisa, who hails from a small Cambodian village, was one of three children invited to the hospital to receive free life-saving operations.
The three children - Loeng Sonisa, 7; Run Sokry, 9; and Taing Guuochly, 9 - all suffer from ventricular septal defect, or holes in the wall that separates the right and left ventricles of the heart
Since 2002, the nonprofit Korean Community for Service in Cambodia (KCSC) has sponsored three children with heart diseases each year to come to Korea and receive treatment at SCHU Hospital.
Comprised of SCHU Hospital staff and members of Bucheon Jeil Church, which is adjacent to the hospital, the KCSC aims to provide free medical care to Cambodians in poverty, including annual summer trips to Cambodia’s neediest regions.
The organization was started in the summer of 2002 after a group of doctors from SCHU Hospital visited Cambodia for volunteer work, not knowing then that the trip would become an annual event. Realizing the lack of modern medical care in the country, the KCSC was formed to help more than just a few people each year.
Among the doctors on the 2002 trip was Shin Won-han, director of SCHU Hospital in Bucheon, who credits the support of Seo Kyo-il, executive director of Soon Chun Hyang University, for the KCSC’s long-running success. Seo’s father was the founder of the university.
Shin recalled Seo telling doctors after the KCSC’s establishment, “In 1954, when the Korean War just ended, Korea’s medical standards were terrible. But a medical staff from the University of Minnesota visited Seoul National University at that time. Thanks to them, Korea was able to learn advanced medical techniques.”
Shin said, “That’s why Korean doctors should be the ones who help those people in developing countries like Cambodia and train doctors in advanced medical technology in these countries.”
Every August, around 20 medical staff from SCHU Hospital and members of the KCSC give up their weeklong summer vacation to treat the neediest Cambodians. Last year, a total of 26 KCSC members went to Kampong Speu Referral Hospital, a provincial hospital in Kampong Speu, Cambodia, and treated a total of 3,523 Cambodian patients and performed surgery on 60 more patients over six days.
Lee Gi-cheol, 45, chief of a dental hospital in SCHU Hospital, has never missed a trip for the past decade, saying that the annual trip to Cambodia is “part of his life.”
“Although sometimes we, the doctors, think of this trip as an extension of what we do every day, for the Cambodians who we meet, they wait for a year to see us,” said Lee. “I also believe this trip is a good opportunity for doctors in Korea to realize how lucky we are in Korea and feel compassion toward the people in Cambodia, who die every day due to lack of medical care.”
The KCSC also invites six Cambodian doctors every year to the SCHU Hospital for yearlong training. So far, a total of 43 Cambodian doctors in various departments - including general surgery, obstetrics, urology and anesthesiology - have come.
“I am learning a lot at SCHU Hospital right now,” said Chhor Kompeak, 27, a Cambodian anesthesiologist training at the hospital who arrived in early July. “I want to take the experience that I have here to Cambodia and treat the people in my country.”
Chhor Kompeak said that medical technology in Cambodia is not as advanced as in Korea so only a limited number of doctors can perform delicate operations.
“Cambodian doctors have a lot of knowledge but they rarely have the chance to watch and learn the techniques like I am doing right now in Korea,” said Chhor Kompeak.
“After a year of training, I think I will have watched diverse operations, and I want to train other doctors in Cambodia who don’t have the chance to go abroad to have such experiences.”
Shin, the KCSC director, explained that Cambodia not only lacks doctors but also facilities for doctors to receive proper training.
According to Shin, there are only 2,000 doctors in Cambodia, which has a population of 12 million, meaning that there are 6,000 people per doctor. In contrast, in Korea, there is one doctor per 600 people.
“Cambodia’s economy will gradually develop and medical facilities will also improve,” said Shin. “But improvement in medical practices cannot be achieved in a day or two. That’s why training Cambodian doctors is crucial.”
KCSC members are preparing to go on their 11th trip to Cambodia in two weeks.
And Lee, the dentist, has the date circled on his calendar.
“I feel great to be able to participate in such a meaningful journey for over a decade, but my wife and kids complain sometimes because I haven’t spent my summer vacation with my family for ten years,” said Lee, chuckling.
“I may have to skip next year to calm my wife down.”
6 comments:
Two my relatives in Kampong Cham are dead at the hand of the incompetent stupid Cambodian doctors and medical staffs in 2011! The fucken sad part is that they choose to blame the victim who died in their care and because my relatives are so dirt poor and these medical doctors and medical staffs were never accused of any wrong doing! The malpractice and medical error are rampant in Cambodia and it is killing more dirt poor Cambodian every year that is why majority of the Cambodian people who can afford for better healthcare are willing to spend more money in Vietnam and Thailand for better healthcare!
It is the same killing field all over again for me! It is very hard to take when two of my relatives died in less than a year! One is a male child who is 6 years old and the other is a woman who is 34 years old! I like to see these Cambodian doctors and medical staffs hold accountable for their action according to the law and uphold medical profession to a higher standard!
People turn up for such treatment because the CPP government" those is a government" but did jack all to look after national health. The health system in Cambodia is shocking...dont get sick in Cambodia if you are a tourist or the poors. Note even Ah Hun Sen goes to Singapore for health check...what else can you say about the CPP...
Where are Cambodian Doctors?? Are they busy making money or killing babies? It's so shameful for khmer under this current regime that never able to their own race. Every institution are corrupted. Where are Khmer Angkorian???
The CPP government did not care about the people they only care abput their money, power and corruption. Down the CPP you have done shit all for the Khmer people, you sold all the national assets and let million of youns live and steal the Cambodian land by the so called land concession. Down the CPP....
helping and giving medical assistance, etc to people should be all leaders job and responsibility as well as all ethical or professionally trained people out there, really! this is what scam rainsy should be doing as well, intead of making trouble for cambodia, then run away and hide overseas, you know!
The jungle govt of Hun Sen is to
reduce Khmer population,so Vietnamese illegal immigrants can
flow in Cambodia.Hun Sen and the
rest of his officials are Vietnam
citizens.
Can you talk back to ah Hun Sen
12:17AM?
How many blogger hate and say bad
words to ah Hun Sen and you?
Cambodia is a communist state,not
a free world.
Ah Hun Sen is a dictator like
China,North Korea,Lao,Vietnam,
Cuba,Burma,and few other countries
in the world.
The Communists and dictatorship
countries will wipe out of the world.
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