Students assist underprivileged in summer Vietnam medical trip
[caption id=”attachment_102" align=”alignleft” width=”300" caption=”Senior neurobiology and physiology major Shannon Liu with Vietnamese children during the medical mission trip. Photo courtesy of VNMAP.”]
[/caption]On June 16, seven medical students, seven volunteers, two pharmacists and a physician from around the country embarked on a journey to Vietnam to assist the underprivileged, to educate, and to be educated.
During the Viet Nam Medical Assistance Program, which is only in its second year, students worked in the central provinces of Khanh Hoa and Lam Dong in order to explore the medical field and provide health care to the underprivileged of Vietnam, according to its mission statement.
“There was this older man with leprosy… he had no feet and his fingers were contracted… he seemed so happy even though he was at the end of his life,” Shannon Liu, a senior neurobiology and physiology major, said to what stood out in her mind most about the mission.
Liu and Diana Le, a senior biology and physiology and neurobiology double major, were two of the eight medical students that journeyed to Vietnam to assist the underprivileged of Vietnam and gain medical experience.
Le said she felt overwhelmed after visiting a pediatric oncology unit in Ho Chi Minh City.
“Families who don’t live in the city [where the hospital is located] are sent to live there and many end up having to stay with their children who were sick. These were dire situations. Families end up living in hallways; not all families are guaranteed rooms,” Le said.
While in Khanh Hoa the participants stayed in the provincial capital of Nha Trang and visited adjacent villages every day. The Red Cross buildings in the village provided space for the program to set up clinics for assistance.
On June 22, the program traveled from Nha Trang to Tung Nghia, Lam Dong, where they stayed at a school that was sponsored and cared for by the local church. On June 27, they returned to Ho Chi Minh City, where they spent time visiting and observing an HIV camp, a leprosy camp, the pediatric unit of a cancer hospital and a medical school. The program returned to the United States on July 1.
“We saw about 250 people a day,” Le said. “They came in with a basic complaint and we would perform primary care examinations.”
Diane Le, who expects to graduate this December, recently became the treasurer for the 2009 VNMAP Board.
[caption id=”attachment_103" align=”alignright” width=”225" caption=”Dr. Tan Nguyen, M.D., pathologist and associate professor at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, with a patient. Photo courtesy of VNMAP.”]
[/caption]Anna Thai, a board member of VNMAP, could not be reached for an interview, but said online in a statement: “I was a volunteer on last year’s medical mission to Khanh Hoa, Viet Nam and would like to pass on the value of this program to others who seek to improve and expand healthcare beyond our borders. I believe this opportunity will provide further energy and enthusiasm to those moving towards a career in health and medicine, as it had for me.”
Le and Liu also shared that they hope to get the program to become a non-profit organization.
“There are more areas that need our help. The success of this year’s trip tells us that we are capable of more as long as the team chemistry and leadership is strong,” according to the organization’s 2008 newsletter. “Every year, we strive to build good relationships…in order to secure a point of contact overseas. The Vietnamese Red Cross in Nha Trang City has and will remain a promising connection for us to tackle our efforts again next year.”
The program began with a group of students from Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, according to the Web site.
The first mission went in June 2007, when a group of 11 served at Dienh Khanh Hospital located in the province of Khanh Hoa.
“In the mission, we realized the great need for medical care of the poor and the minority living in the central region of Viet Nam,” according to the Web site. “It was a great opportunity for the medical students and volunteers to acquire a great experience in practicing medicine and learning about medical system in Viet Nam.”
Twenty percent of Vietman’s 83 million inhabitants live in poverty, lacking basic necessities for survival, including food and clean water, according to the Viet Nam Medical Assistance Program Web site.
The newsletter and more information about the mission can be accessed at http://www.vnmap.org.
