DaVik Teng, 9, faces a rare heart anomaly that can only be repaired at a U.S. hospital.
12/06/2007
By Greg Mellen, Staff writer
Long Beach Press Telegram (Calif., USA)
LONG BEACH - Her imploring eyes said what words could not.
DaVik Teng came to the Angkor Children's Hospital in Siem Reap, Cambodia, to have her heart mended but had to be turned away.
However, she found her way into the hearts of medical workers and supporters who have pledged to do all they can to bring the 9-year-old to the United States where she can receive proper treatment.
Teng's daily struggle to survive, to take each rasping breath, to pump blood through her damaged heart, has profoundly affected those who have met her.
None more than Chantha Bob, a waiter at Sophy's Restaurant in Long Beach, who spent several days with the girl and her family.
"This is a personal journey for me," Bob said, who sees this as a chance to be more than himself.
"I'm a single guy, so I have it made," Bob said. "But this, this is something different."
As Bob sits at Sophy's and talks about the girl, there's a barely contained intensity. He taps his forefinger on one of the flyers at the restaurant, displayed at each table, that describe Teng's plight.
Peter Chhun, a television producer at NBC, invited Bob to come with him to Cambodia as part of a team from the Long Beach-based nonprofit Hearts Without Boundaries that accompanied teams of American doctors on a recent trip to Cambodia.
Bob had actually met Teng's family several years earlier in their home in a remote village in Battambang Province. Teng, her mother and sister shared a bamboo hut with four other families. Bob said at the time he didn't notice the little girl who fought for every breath.
It was Bob's younger brother who told him of Teng's condition and Bob thought maybe U.S. doctors could help.
Surgeons from Variety Children's Lifeline, which provides medical services to children with treatable, survivable heart ailments in developing countries, arrived in Cambodia and performed more than 20 patent ductus arteriosus, or PDA, procedures. These are relatively simple, minimally invasive procedures that close leaky heart vessels from which blood seeps into the lungs.
A trip of hope
Teng and her mother, Chhon Sin, made an arduous six-hour trip from their village of Svay Chrom with hopes of finding a cure.
However, they soon learned Teng's condition was much more severe. She actually has two holes in her heart that require open-heart surgery. That was something the hospital in Siem Reap could not handle.
Chhun said when the news was broken to the girl and her mother, the look in their eyes was devastating.
"You can imagine her face," Chhun said. "To them it was the end of the earth."
"My heart just dropped," Bob said. "She had been so excited."
But rather than accept the condition, Bob and his compatriots decided to press forward.
Plans were then made for Teng to travel to the capital city of Phnom Penh for surgery. But after another long trip, Teng was turned away because she was too weak and her red cell blood count was too low.
"I thought, `Christ, what can we do?"' Chhun recalls.
The idea hit upon was to put Teng under the supervision of a nurse and try to get her healthy enough to travel to the United States, where two hospitals had offered to help the young girl.
Getting Teng healthy enough for a 16-hour flight was no small feat. She was emaciated when she first arrived at Siem Reap. Teng's mother works in construction and makes about $1 a day when she can work. Many days she must stay home to care for her child. As a result, Sin is barely able to keep her family fed, much less administer medications and pay for the vitamins and nutrients Teng needs before she's healthy enough to travel.
Lauren Ina, another member of the team, said Teng's condition, which she has likely had from birth, should have been treated when she was a toddler. But access to medical care in countries like Cambodia, particularly in poor, remote areas, is virtually nonexistent.
"Her symptoms are probably much worse now (than when she was younger)," Ina said. "It's just so hard. They know something is terribly wrong. Her quality of life will definitely get worse (without surgery)."
Childhood shortchanged
As it is, Teng hasn't had much of a childhood. Because of her breathing difficulties, she is unable to run and play with other children. Transportation in the rural areas is difficult and is done mostly on foot, by bicycle and the occasional motor scooter.
Ina said as Teng grows and her heart enlarges, so will the holes. Without properly oxygenated blood, Teng is susceptible to disease because her immune system is suppressed.
When Teng is healthy enough to travel, Ina said there are several hospitals that are ready to step forward and provide the surgery.
Bob recalls watching the girl as she slept, her tiny chest constricting with each breath, struggling from one heartbeat to the next.
"That was the hardest thing to witness," Bob said.
With treatment, Bob hopes Teng can recover and discover what childhood can be.
Funds are still being raised for Teng. Donations can be sent in her name to Hearts Without Boundaries, 744 Redondo Ave., Long Beach, CA 90804. Chhun can be reached for at 818-640-6191.
