Fixing Smiles at AHC
A patient with a cleft lift and palette before
and after surgery
Oral-facial clefts are birth defects in which the tissues of the mouth
or lip do not form properly during fetal development. Clefts occur more
often in children of Asian, Latino, or Native American descent. The
good news is that both cleft lip and palate are treatable. Most kids
born with this condition in the U.S. have reconstructive surgery within
the first 12 to 18 months of life to correct the defect and significantly
improve facial appearance.
Free to Smile Foundation, based in the U.S., has been funding a group
of volunteer surgeons and dentists to work at AHC since 2004. Dr. Byron
Henry, Founder of Free to Smile Foundation, is a maxillofacial surgeon
from Ohio who brings additional surgeons and dentists to AHC. This is
his third time performing cleft lip and palate repairs at AHC to 20
children ranging in age from 6 months to 5 years old. As important as
bringing smiles to children's faces, he also provides training to AHC's
surgeons. He loves the people in Cambodia, especially the children.
We would like to give special thanks to Dr. Henry and his colleagues
for their time and expertise to help the cleft lip and palate children
smile beautifully.
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Fighting Malnutrition in Cambodia
Eath Ath (R) Getting Ready to Go Home
All children that come to AHC are assessed for malnutrition.
Each month, AHC diagnoses about 10-15 children with severe malnutrition.
The main factors causing the condition are ignorance and poverty. To
improve the children’s health, AHC provides the families of the sick
children with food, cooking demonstration classes, and nutrition information
sessions.
Eath Ath is one patient who suffered from severe malnutrition (Kwashiokor).
With two sisters and a brother, Ath is the fourth child in a poor family
from a small village in Siem Reap district. Ath’s mother is a housewife
and his father is a construction worker in the village, earning about
$2-$3 a day. Ath was given rice porridge fluid instead of breast milk
and then he experienced swelling in his legs. His poor appetite caused
him to be very weak and tired. Ath took a very long time to recover,
spending 44 days in hospital. There were no traces of edema left and
his appetite steadily increased. Most importantly, the nurses educated
the mother every day on the importance of nutritious foods and proper
hygiene.
There are many children in Cambodia who suffer from the same symptom
as Eath Ath. Abbott Laboratories has been funding AHC for many years
to fulfill this fundamental need: improved nutritional conditions and
awareness for Cambodian children.
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Milestone for AHC
Cardiac Team
Chouv Nita before and after the operation
This month, two Patten Ductus Arteriosis (PDA) patients received successful
operations at AHC. This is the first time, after studying for more than
two years with various volunteer expert cardiac surgeons from abroad,
that our surgery team has performed a PDA surgery on their own. Dr.
Sar Vuthy, Chief of Surgery, is happy to report that AHC can now save
more heart patients’ lives because we can provide simple heart surgeries
independently. As long as AHC has access to the necessary equipment
and surgical materials through donors' support, we will be able to continue
to perform closed heart surgeries.
For as little as $700, AHC can provide this type of operation. There
are many children with heart disease on the waiting list for an operation,
and AHC would like to appeal to all donors around the world to continue
giving their support to our hospital. With it many more lives can be
saved.
The huge success of these two PDA patients shows the great work and
the improvements at AHC. We would like to express our sincere thanks
to those who have been training the AHC surgeons over the years. Bravo
to AHC’s cardiac team!
Laotian Healthcare workers training
at AHC.
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New Gift Items at the Friends
Center
Silk Scarves and T-shirts on-sale at the Friends
Center
The Friends Center is pleased to announce a new series of gift products
for sale in its donation lounge. All products are made of Cambodian
materials. The new gift products include AHC’s T-shirt (children’s size)
and cotton and silk scarves. Please tell your guests, your family, and
your friends to visit the Friends Center. It is open every Monday through
Friday for 8 am -6 pm and Saturday for 8am -12pm. Visits on Saturday
afternoon and Sunday are by appointment only. The Manager of the Friends
Center plans to discount the price of one item in the donation lounge
every weekend. The exact schedule of this new promotion will be announced
later.
For further information, please contact the staff at the Center for
Friends Without A Border at fc@angkorhospital.org or telephone at 855-63-963-409
Ext: 7015.
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Feeding the Ancestors
The fifteenth day of the tenth month of the Khmer calendar marks the
Pchum Ben festival. This is a time when the spirits of the dead ancestors
walk the Earth and the living can ease their suffering by offering them
food to eat.
The first 14 days are called Kan Ben which means “observed celebration”.
The 15th day is called Pchum Ben Day. A ‘Ben’ is an offering. The word
‘Ben’ is taken from the Sanskrit word panda; these are balls of rice
to be offered to the souls of the dead. During Kan Ben, people take
turns offering food to the monks of their local pagoda in the hope that
their offering will reach the souls of their ancestors and friends by
virtue of the monks' sermons.
Pchum Ben is when the villagers gather to celebrate in their villages.
Villagers come from all around to prepare the pagoda of their village
the night before the celebration.
In 2009, September 18 to 20 are marked as the Pchum Ben Holiday, for
which all businesses, NGOs, industries, and the government offices are
shut down in order to allow staff to travel to their home village to
join the festival.
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Three AHC Medical
Research Studies to be Published
Research work being done at
AHC
Three AHC studies were published in August. The first was a study
on MRSA cases at AHC done by AHC staff Dr. Kheng Chheng, Dr. Ngoun Chan
Pheaktra, Mr. Hor Putchhat and former AHC volunteer Ms. Sarah Tarquinio;
in collaboration with the Wellcome Trust. It was published in the recent
issue of PLoSONE, which is a high impact journal that is known for reporting
on new emergences of infectious diseases. The full text of the study
can be found at: http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0006630
The second published study was an HIV mortality study in collaboration
with MSF (Doctors Without Borders). It came out in preliminary form
in this month’s BMC Pediatrics online journal – the final version will
be coming out next month in the print issue. The AHC staff involved
in this study were Dr. Soeung Seitaboth, Ms. Kazumi Akao, and Dr. Varun
Kumar and the full text of the study can be found at http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1471-2431-9-54.pdf
Lastly, a study on the association between a kidney disease called nephrotic
syndrome and intestinal parasites by AHC staff Dr. Orng Sam Ol and Dr.
Ngoun Chan Pheaktra, and former AHC volunteers Dr. Larry Copelovitch
and Ms. Sarah Tarquinio, was published in Journal of Pediatrics. Congratulations
to our staff, volunteers, and collaborators for having their research
published.
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The NEED 
