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Miracle Medical Team Cambodia
July 2001
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Here are a few excerpts from emails to give you an idea of the
setting in which this wonderful service took place.
Whew! What a time we've had over the past ten days! Everyone
involved is totally exhausted, many are sick from fatigue and
overwork, but all are rejoicing over what the Lord has done. Here
are the final statistics; total patients seen by the team:
12,500
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"Patients were treated for everything from cancer surgery,
gangrene removal, to scabies eradication. We treated patients
in age from newborns to those in their 90s, from soldiers to
orphans to Buddhist Monks. They came from the surrounding
countryside, some walking two days or more to get to the
clinic. One woman, paralyzed with septic arthritis and
malaria, rode in an oxcart from 3:00 am until mid-afternoon to
receive help." | "Doctors worked from
rising at 5:00 am to as late as 10:00 pm. In addition to those
treated, thousands had to be turned away. 'It broke my heart to turn
away easily treated conditions. If we only had the right equipment
we could have helped them, but without it, there is nothing we can
do," said cardiologist, Dr. Joel Heger. The strangest condition
treated was a milk-producing breast removed from the back of a man's
lower leg by surgeon Dr. Paul Dearing."
"I broke down and cried when a young mother, who'd lost her
husband and her two children to AIDS, came in for treatment, herself
in an advanced stage of AIDS," explained Dr. Elisabeth Taylor.
Though the tragedies and pain were significant, the love of
God and the victories were more prevalent. Thousands of people
received real help and many were healed. One man, who came into the
clinic paralyzed, was examined by Dr. Bosan from Nigeria. When he
saw there was nothing to be done medically, he prayed and the man
got up and walked. Another three year old boy came into the clinic
who had never spoken a word. After prayer, he began speaking and his
parents jumped for joy and began weeping at the goodness of God.
"There were a couple of times when it got a little scary,"
said Ted Olbrich, FMI Missionary. "The doctors were overloaded and
we'd have another 3000 people waiting outside the gates. A rumor
started that we'd run out of medicine and it almost started a riot."
Three different times pharmacist Dr. Ruben Joy sent Ted into the
Phnom Penh wholesale drug market to scrounge up extra acceptable
medications. "The last time I came back with a truck load and we
still almost ran out," concluded Olbrich.
"Kids and all the pastors, and many other orphans from as far
away as Bantemenchy, are there to help. We've put up several large,
temporary thatch buildings to house everyone and Moaney and Chantol
are running a company-sized food effort. All the supplies we had on
hand are exhausted, including all the Tylenol, Ibuprophin, (I was
convinced we had enough to last until Jesus came back) and supplies
purchased by Dave Magee."
"Sou's voice is shot; Sinai, Soumali, Peter, Perome, Paul Mok
(the mechanic), and two of our contractors have all been going full
steam ahead. We have a team of 60 doctors and technicians (47
Americans, 8 Japanese, 5 Nigerians)."
"All my vehicles are in the shop, three waiting for
engines. The only thing I have to run back and forth in is that 1971
jeep (Vietnam reject) we bought for Randy Kist. The poor thing has
been broken in two and welded back together, has a Toyota engine,
Russian transmission and just keeps slugging away. Right now that
jeep is a good representation of about how everyone on the team
feels."
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