Angkor Hospital for Children

One of the daughters of the host family, Thea lives here in Siem Reap. She’s married to a volunteer doctor from the US named Gene who works for the Angkor Hospital for Children. We got the tour yesterday of their complex. What a place. It put me back into a reality check of the condition of this country. It’s easy to forget where you are when you get to Siem Reap, just because of all the Western restaurants and all the tourist spots, and sometimes you feel like you are back in the states.

But we walked through the hospital and saw how everything was running. Yesterday they had a patient list of about 430 people. Families travel from hundreds of miles just to get to this hospital, and then sometimes camp or wait overnight just so they can see a doctor and be looked at. Many people are suffering from things that would easily be taken care of in a western country. Gene showed us the schedule board of a list of the patients they were caring for that day. Many are suffering from malnutrition, pneumonia, anemia, diarrhea, tuberculosis, parasites and the list goes on. You can visit the website here: www.angkorhospital.org. It’s truly a wonderful thing that they are doing there. I commend those who can work in the medical field. Touring the hospital yesterday, made me sort of wish that I could do that type of work, so I could help out in that way. But I just don’t think I’m cut out for it. But there is definitely such a need in this country.

The medical care for the majority of people in this developing country is not good at all. Gene explained to us that those going to medical school even in Phnom Penh, when finished really only have the same education as those of a 3rd year med student in the US. Then you have many of those people going back into their villages starting up their own clinics. It’s a huge project this country has to take on, with education and getting everyone and everything up to speed. Not to mention all the hoops that have to be jumped through with the government and corruption and everything else that happens in third world countries, when trying to get good programs running and keeping them running.

The hospital was started by a photographer Kenro Izu who was in country photographing some of the temples. It has grown and grown from several generous donations and also receives grants to keep it in operation. Apparently there is a waiting list of doctors from around the world (the U.S., Australia, England, Switzlerland, and more) that are wanting to volunteer here. Gene explained that right now they’re at full capacity and cannot allow all of them to come at once. The hospital would have to expand to be able to accommodate the extra workers.

Anyway – an interesting visit.

There is a new visitor’s center opening up next week for the hospital. We got a sneak peak at the center. All I can say is that I commend those that are so generous of their, time, expertise, talents and gifts. There is a definite need here. We saw it first hand when we walked into the waiting room full of about 70 people who had not been seen, 45 minutes before the hospital was closing for the day.

http://www.fwab.org/