The Cambodian Health Professional Association of America (CHPAA) once a year for the past 10 years (except 2021 and 2022) has been conducting a Medical, Dental and Surgical mission in Cambodia. The team comprises of doctors, nurses, premed students and general volunteers in total around 120. This will be my 5th mission with this group. As a team of primary care physicians we examine and treat about 500 to 600 patients a day for 6 days. We screen and refer patients to our Surgical and Dental colleagues. We pack and carry around 80, 40 lb boxes of medicine and surgical supplies.
The next mission will be from Jan 25, 2023 to Feb 6, 2023.
A team of Doctors, Dentist and volunteers conduct annual medical, surgical, and dental mission to Cambodia to provide medical care services and education free of charge to the under-served Cambodian population.
The underserved patients in rural Cambodia, who do no have excess to medical, dental and surgical care will benefit by the services provided. Many of the patients we see have undiagnosed hypertension and diabetes. We provide free medications for 2 to 3 months supply. The patients will be educated in medication compliance, diet and preventive health.
We team up with local medical students who help us with language interpretation and at the same time we educate and teach them. This are the future health care providers for this population.
As Gandhi once said - The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. Each time I return from this medical mission, I feel a healthy boost of self-confidence, self-esteem and life satisfaction. By making new connections with like minded people it has helped me fight loneliness. On this mission we served the people of Banteay Meanchey province. Most of the patients we saw were farmers, some of whom have never seen a doctor. We provided free medications, vitamins and eyeglasses. We referred simple surgical cases to our surgical colleagues who operated on them at the regional hospital. For me the highlight of the trip was when I saw a patient with an accidental amputation of his hand. We were able to fit him with an artificial mechanical hand with which he will be able to do simple tasks like, holding a spoon, cup with a handle, pen and toothbrush. I would like to thank the Dox Foundation for your generous support which helped us touch so many lives
