Is there a doctor in the house?

Dr Ed Newson came to Cambodia with Mission Direct to help build a clinic. God had other ideas as he explains...

I was plastering a newly built wall on the 1st day when it all began. Stuart, our team leader pulled me to one side, trowel in hand. Knowing that I was a doctor, he asked me if I could take a quick look at a local woman’s ailment. She had a really nasty large lump on her jaw and was still in a great deal of pain. A larger dose of antibiotics did the trick and I returned to my labours.

But the word was out: there was a doctor in the village. Mysterious figures began to lurk in the background as we worked. Finally a tuk-tuk driver explained: they had all come, hoping for some trained medical attention.

So I set out my 'consulting room' - a couple of child-size plastic stools under the shade of some trees and opened the surgery for business. Fortunately I’d brought my stethoscope. But with no other equipment other than that and my torch, I had to make great use of colleagues’ translating abilities, knowing that often the history of the illness is 95% of the diagnosis.

On that first morning, a woman in her early 20s who had waited patiently in the queue, poured out her heart. She explained to me that she was suffering with HIV and was desperately worried. She had a new baby, just 6 months or so old. Although she had medication, it was clear that her health was deteriorating. As she explained her problem, she began to cry. She told me that she was afraid that she wouldn’t live long enough to take care of her son. She allowed me to pray for her and I sent her off to another nearby clinic. For the rest of the week I repeatedly saw her, looking on and smiling - a little glimmer of hope had returned to the face of someone beloved of God.

It was great fun to act as my own pharmacist; I nipped off into town to buy my list of medications and take them back to distribute. I saw people getting better day-by-day as I kept working on the building – all for the price of a few cheap drugs.

It wasn’t what I had gone to Cambodia to do, but those two weeks with my makeshift surgery has changed my life’s priorities. I have now applied to study tropical medicine. I may just return  to Cambodia – hopefully this time I'll have some more comfortable furniture!

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