Long Beach Non-Profit Prepares For Cambodian Medical Mission

Volunteers counted and ziplocked pills. (Photo by Gracie Zheng)

January 16, 2012
Gracie Zheng
Staff Reporter
Neon Tommy (USC Annenberg School of Communication & Journalism)

A small group of volunteers from St. Mary Medical Center and the non-profit Cambodian Health Professionals

Association of America (CHPAA) packed medicine kits Sunday for a week-long medical mission to Cambodia scheduled for later this month.

Volunteers packaged pills into individual doses, labeled them in English and Khmer, sealed them in boxes and weighed them at St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach. Medications included antibiotics, vitamins, painkillers, and those for stomach illnesses, diabetes, high blood pressure and parasites.

About 70 volunteers, including 20 physicians and five dentists, are leaving for Cambodia on Jan. 25 to provide free medical and dental care to 5,000 residents of Koh Kong province in southwestern Cambodia and Takeo province in the southeast.

Volunteers are required to take 50 pounds of medicine and pay their own way.

Song Tan, president of CHPAA, initiated the mission in 2011 to bring free medical care to the underserved in his homeland.

HUMANITARIAN: The miracle of Makara

The Franco family of Lockport recently hosted Cambodian teenager Makara Thouen while she recovered from surgery to cure a bone condition that, in Cambodia, eventually would have forced amputation of her right leg. The surgery was arranged partly by Deborah Franco, who works for a humanitarian travel organization. Makara, forefront, is shown here with the Francos: Alex, left, Ron and Deborah.

Local medical mission gives Cambodian girl hope for better life

April 26, 2009
By Joyce Miles
Lockport Union-Sun & Journal (New York, USA)

Makara Thouen walked unassisted to her seat on a flight home to Cambodia a couple days ago. It was a miracle facilitated by two Lockport families who opened their homes and hearts to a stranger.

Over a seven-week period, Deborah and Ron Franco, and doctors Helen and Andrew Cappuccino, lived life as they normally do — and changed the fate of a girl who’s about the same age as their own children.

“Things are possible when they seem impossible,” Deborah Franco said. “A team effort is what it takes.”

Before she came to Buffalo in early March, Makara, 14, could not walk without crutches. Her right leg was afflicted with an aneurysmal bone cyst, a tumor that made the bone so weak, she broke it twice the past few years just by walking. In a very poor country, the only “cure” for Makara’s condition is amputation, and a girl who can’t walk is a terrible burden on her family.

Franco, a sales associate for the humanitarian travel agency Raptim International, learned about Makara from an agent of the medical relief mission Operation Renewed Hope and knew she could help. She relayed Makara’s story to her close friend Helen Cappuccino, who in turn passed it on to her husband.

Andrew Cappuccino, an orthopedic surgeon, was prepared to travel to Cambodia in order to treat the girl. When he learned the medical facilities there weren’t sufficient to support the surgery he knew would be necessary, the team effort turned to bringing Makara to the United States.

It was easier said than done.

Franco said Makara’s first attempt at a visa was denied, and it took attorneys in Cambodia more than a year to get that denial overturned.

The Cappuccinos set on the task of recruiting a hospital to host the surgery and had some difficulties. Helen Cappuccino said several children’s hospitals were approached, and all declined, perhaps out of concern for liability.

The only information anyone had on Makara’s condition going into treatment was an X-ray and diagnosis by a Cambodian doctor. Ultimately, the Cappuccinos’ employer, Kenmore Mercy Hospital, signed on for the mission.

Franco worked a deal with Korean Airlines to donate Makara’s round trip. When a seat to the United States came open, she received notice that Makara was finally coming — in two weeks. She drove to Chicago to meet the girl on March 7.

Makara’s surgery consisted of cyst removal, bone grafting and insertion of a metal rod into her leg. Amazing to her sponsors, she was on her feet and submitting to physical therapy in a matter of days.

“It was a one-and-a-half hour surgery, not the marathon that we expected. Makara’s recovery has been phenomenal,” Deborah said.

“She is the strongest, bravest girl,” Helen added. “She came here and faced this all by herself ... and in all this time I don’t think she cried once. She cried a little bit right before the surgery, but that’s it.”

Friends of the Francos and Cappuccinos, and entities friendly to their mission including Lockport Fitness Center and Lockport Kiwanis Club, helped support Makara’s recovery with a variety of thoughtful small gifts.

Meanwhile, the Francos’ and Cappuccinos’ children played big brother/big sister to Makara, sharing her delight as she experienced normal American stuff — computers, rap music, sweet snacks — for the first time. Alex Franco taught her some English and a few songs on the piano. Lizz Cappuccino brought her to school last week.

One of the biggest “firsts” of all for Makara likely was her realization that, after years of struggling with limited mobility, she could walk unassisted again. She marked the milestone with the Francos by throwing her crutches in the garbage, shouting “no more!” as she did.

“The look on her face was pure glee,” Alex said. “Two words, and that huge smile, said everything.”

For her hosts, Makara’s return home Friday was bittersweet. They grew fond of her quickly, and initially thought of letting her stay here until her visa expired in June; but as Deborah and Helen watched the girl more closely they came to believe that would be a mistake. Encouraging her to get more used to American life — and the chocolate and the “I Love Lucy” reruns that she’d already fallen in love with — seemed almost cruel.

“In the village where Makara lives, people walk a mile to get water. They bathe in a river and ... sleep on wooden planks,” Deborah said. “She came to a country full of hope and now she has to go back to a country with no hope.”

While she was here, Makara apparently decided that her goal is to get an education and teach English to Cambodians. To help her realize it, Deborah worked out an arrangement with Operation Renewed Hope to maintain an online trust fund for Makara (www.operationrenewedhope.org). Monthly pledges will be accepted to cover the cost of feeding, clothing and schooling the girl.

Deborah is contributing personally to the effort by writing a children’s book, “The Miracle of Makara,” illustrated by Lockport native Dan DiPaolo. The story will portray Makara’s journey, beginning with her flight from Cambodia.

“It’ll be an excellent, inspiring children’s book,” Deborah said. “It’s a fundraiser for Operation Renewed Hope and the Makara Trust — and also so that Makara will have something to show her grandkids some day.”

Contact reporter Joyce Miles at 439-9222, ext. 6245.

For [US] Navy care providers, Cambodia mission is sobering, rewarding

Cambodian boys wait to be seen outside a makeshift medical clinic at the Ma’Ahad El-Muhajirin Islamic Center Aug. 17. (Photo by: Sgt. Ethan E. Rocke)

Petty Officer 3rd Class Roberto Alberto examines a Cambodian patient Aug. 17. (Photo by: Sgt. Ethan E. Rocke)

Story by: Sgt. Ethan E. Rocke
US Marine Corps News

KAMPONG SOM PROVINCE, Cambodia(Aug. 31, 2007) -- It’s 9 a.m. and the daily crowd of patients is lined up outside the makeshift medical clinic at the Ma’Ahad El-Muhajirin Islamic Center in southern Cambodia. They peer inside the building, watching a Navy medical team at work.

As medical officer, Lt. Jonathan Endres sees his fifth patient of the day, his face is bright and his spirits high. He knows exactly how to help 9-year-old Mutiah Zaynuttin. The rash on her scalp is textbook, and she has a mild cold. Endres writes her prescription, smiles and sends her next door to another dim, shabby room that serves as the team’s pharmacy.

Zaynuttin is one of the approximately 500 residents of the center, located in the midst of Kampong Som Province’s remote farmland. She is the 98th patient Endres and his team of corpsmen from the Okinawa-based Marine Wing Support Squadron 172 have seen since they began a medical civil assistance project here two and a half days earlier. She is one of the 96 whose ailments the “docs” have been able to effectively treat, and she is one of the patients that leaves Endres smiling.

But as Endres and his docs measure their worth with the care and comfort they can provide the sick, and the other patients – those few whose serious illnesses they can’t treat in this environment – weigh on their minds.

Their humanitarian mission is a familiar one that Okinawa service members carry out in countries all over the Pacific.

“It’s very challenging,” said Endres, who is deployed on his first medical civil assistance project. “You do what you can and want to help as many people as you can, and we are able to treat the majority. There are only a few that we got stuck on, and that’s frustrating.”

By the project’s third day, there were two patients Endres could not help. One, he suspects has hepatitis and another appears to be in the beginning stages of tuberculosis.

Many patients U.S. teams see on humanitarian assistance missions have never seen a doctor. And while they are the minority, cases that exceed a deployed team’s capabilities are a disheartening reality for American doctors accustomed to Western health care standards.

The team’s enlisted leader Chief Petty Officer Joe Palmares, a 20-year Navy veteran who planned and coordinated the Cambodia medical project, has been faced with that reality several times; the Cambodia mission marks the ninth medical civil assistance project he has been involved with while stationed on Okinawa.

“There are times that you really wish you could provide more,” he said. “Every time we do this, you can only do so much, so we do the best we can and hope.”

Their best means treating patients every day from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and also providing preventive medicine training that covers topics such as hygiene and preventing heat casualties.

Most patients have several diagnoses many of which are the result of poor living conditions. Infections and parasites are among the most common problems in the small Cambodian community.
The medical team hopes to lengthen its impact beyond the two weeks they are on the ground by showing the residents how to better protect against disease and infection, a responsibility that falls to preventive medicine technician Petty Officer 1st Class Kelly R. Wallen, who is also deployed on his first civil assistance mission.

“This can be an emotionally draining experience,” he said. “It’s backbreaking work at times, but I actually look forward to getting up in the morning, knowing it’s going to be hard, because I know I’m going to help people.”

Wallen and his colleagues share a driving sense of compassion and commitment that is a constant reminder to them that, while they cannot help everyone, there is something very special about helping those they can.

“We come out here and we care,” said Palmares. “That’s our mission, and we do it well. As Americans, we are very blessed. We’re such a strong country, and that’s why we provide this humanitarian relief, because we can and because we should. You can’t provide everything, but to touch somebody’s life, that’s special. They will cherish this; they will remember this.”

Good works: Clinic in Cambodia aids thousands

Dr. Diane Quammen (left) of Everett talks to an elderly woman in the Oddar Meanchey province of Cambodia. Quammen was part of a medical missions team from New Life Foursquare Church in Everett that helped run a clinic in the province. (Photo: Courtesy of Darrick Farmer)

Saturday, August 18, 2007
Herald Net (Everett, Washington, USA)

On July 28, 23 medical professionals and support personnel from New Life Foursquare Church in Everett joined with 15 other medical professionals from Nevada, California and Idaho to conduct a medical clinic in the Oddar Meanchey province of northern Cambodia.

Over the course of the seven-day clinic, the team treated 10,500 patients for health problems such as common complications of malnutrition and more serious diseases such as malaria and dengue fever. The team also brought 120 suitcases of vital medication, including deworming pills, vitamins, malaria kits, antibiotics and more.

Warm Blankets Orphan Care International co-sponsored the clinic with New Life Foursquare Church and hosted the clinic at one of the organization's orphan homes and secondary schools.

Warm Blankets has established more than 100 church orphan homes in Cambodia, caring for a combined total of more than 3,000 orphans.

The team established 20 stations, including an eye clinic and lab. The emergency room staff provided urgent care and surgeries, including functional circumcisions and the separation of the fused fingers of a boy's hand.

The lab allowed accurate diagnoses of diseases and infections, while the pharmacy dispensed prescribed treatments. The dental clinic saw more than 400 people at five stations for extractions, fillings and cleanings. Nurses and additional staff treated wounds and scabies. Every child treated for scabies was giving a bottle of scabies shampoo and a new set of clothing.

Crowds began lining up for triage hours before the clinic opened at 8 am. Several Cambodians reported walking for two days to get to the clinic. Those who arrived after the close of the clinic camped out on the side of roads to wait for an opportunity to be treated.

The new Warm Blankets ambulance transported the most severe cases to local hospitals for continued care. One woman with appendicitis was taken 100 miles for medical treatment paid for by the team.

Cambodian Girl Gets Help From Colorado Doctors

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.