Wednesday, 22 December 2010

On a mission to help Cambodia

http://www.mercurynews.com/

via CAAI

LONG BEACH: Doctor who escaped death in Killing Fields gathers team for medical trip.

By Greg Mellen, Staff Writer
Posted: 12/20/2010

 Dr. Song Tan, center left, and Dr. Tony Chi, DMD, help others in packaging medical supplies at St. Mary Medical Center's Health Enhancement Center in Long Beach for a group of local doctors headed up by Dr. Song Tan that will travel to Phnom Penh where they will set up a free clinic in a poor area of town. (Steven Georges / Press-Telegram)

via CAAI

LONG BEACH - As he sat in his Karing Pediatrics office Monday morning with Christmas carols playing in the background, Dr. Song Tan's mind was a million miles away.

Well, maybe more like 8,300 miles. In his homeland of Cambodia, to be precise.

Volunteer Therosa Prok of Long Beach sorts out thyroid medication that will be shipped to Cambodia as part of a medical mission planned by the Cambodian Health Professionals Association in Long Beach. (Steven Georges/Press-Telegram)

LONG BEACH - As he sat in his Karing Pediatrics office Monday morning with Christmas carols playing in the background, Dr. Song Tan's mind was a million miles away.

Well, maybe more like 8,300 miles. In his homeland of Cambodia, to be precise.

That's where Project Angkor, a medical mission organized by Tan, will be staged in a poor neighborhood on the northern outskirts of Phnom Penh.

The longtime local pediatrician embarks tonight on a journey that's been five years in the planning. But it has roots that go back to the Killing Fields, where only sloppy bookkeeping kept Tan from joining the upward of 2 million who died during the reign of the Khmer Rouge.

Of about 500 doctors in Cambodia at the time the Khmer Rouge took over, only about 40 survived. Most were executed by the government, which targeted those with education for eradication.

Tan remembers he was among a group of doctors the Khmer Rouge said it needed to assist with patient care. A young doctor at the time, Tan was eager to do his part to care for the afflicted.

However, through a clerical error, Tan's name wasn't on the list of doctors the Khmer Rouge sought. He remembers being angry when he wasn't selected to go. Only later did he learn the group had been executed.

It wouldn't be until more than 25 years after the Khmer Rouge downfall in 1979 that Tan would return to his home country.

But when he saw the suffering and the deprivation

No comments: