Congratulations Sothary for your accomplishment!

Sothary Van and Dr. Franklin D. Gaylis review a patient file this month. Van is a Cambodian refugee who escaped from her abusive father and lived on her own for two years. She recently completed her SDSU master’s thesis on blood clot prevention, based on research at Sharp Grossmont Hospital with Gaylis. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / UNION-TRIBUNE)
Sothary Van speaks with Dr. Franklin D. Gaylis at Sharp Grossmont Hospital this month. Van attended Miramar College for two years then transferred to UCLA, where she earned her bachelor’s. She plans to return to SDSU to get a nursing degree, which she says is a necessary step in order to do the clinical research she wants to. (Photo by Nelvin C. Cepeda - UNION-TRIBUNE)

‘Fantastic’ accomplishment by refugee camp survivor

Road to medical research success has been long and challenging

Thursday, May 13, 2010
By Anne Krueger
San Diego UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER (San Diego, California, USA)

Sothary Van’s life could be a movie, with a screenplay covering three continents about a young woman who survived a Cambodian refugee camp, poverty, an abusive father, and life on her own at 16.

Van’s story appears to have a happy ending, with a bachelor’s degree from the University of California Los Angeles and a master’s degree from San Diego State University. She’s hoping for a career in medical research.

Her work on a research paper as part of her master’s program in health administration drew praise from Franklin Gaylis, a Sharp Grossmont Hospital physician who collaborated with her.

“What she’s accomplished is fantastic,” Gaylis said. The paper, developing protocols to help prevent blood clots in patients, is set to be published in the American Journal of Medical Quality next month. The work was funded by a $93,000 grant to the Grossmont Hospital Foundation from the Sanofi-Aventis pharmaceutical company.

“I never thought when I was 18 years old I would have learned so much and be where I am now,” said Van, a 26-year-old Mission Valley resident.

Van, a petite woman with long, dark hair, tells her life story with no visible signs of the emotional upheaval she has gone through.

She was born in a refugee camp on the border of Cambodia and Thailand. When she was 2, her father sneaked her through the jungle to take her to another camp where her grandmother and aunt lived. They had an opportunity to come to the United States, and they brought Van with them.

They moved to Jacksonville, Fla., where they struggled to make do on her aunt’s salary working at a factory. They later moved to Connecticut, and when Van was 10, her dying grandmother asked Van’s father to join them in the United States.

Van, who had no memory of her father, moved in with him and his wife, a woman from Australia whom he had met in the refugee camp after separating from Van’s mother. She said her father was cold and unaffectionate, often yelling and criticizing her.

“He’s very strict, very old-fashioned,” she said. “He was mean. I hated him because he was so mean.”

Her father’s wife wanted to return to Australia, so they moved to Sydney, along with a half brother. Van said the emotional and physical abuse continued, so she ran away from home when she was 16.

She received a small allowance from the Australian government, but struggled to survive while she finished high school. She avoided the drug dealers in her rundown neighborhood, and remembers constantly being hungry.

“Then one day, it just clicked in my head,” Van said. “I’ve got to do something different with my life. I’m not going anywhere.”

A relative put her in touch with her father’s cousin, who lives in San Diego, and Van moved here when she was 18. Mary Mom Keo, a social worker and a devout Buddhist, was the savior Van needed.

“She’s become the mother I never had,” Van said. “Her advice has gotten me far. (She said) ‘Go to school. You’ll always have it. It will take you far.’ ”

After two years at San Diego Miramar College, Van transferred to UCLA, then got her master’s degree last year. She’s now planning to return to SDSU to get a nursing degree, which she says is a necessary step for the clinical research she wants to do.

She said she has reconciled with her father and plans to visit him in Australia in August.

“I felt at peace with him,” she said. “I don’t hate him anymore.”

Van said the obstacles she has faced have made her a stronger person.

“It’s made me very focused and goal-oriented and motivated to do things with my life,” she said.

Anne Krueger: (619) 542-4575; anne.krueger@uniontrib.com