Davik Teng shows her scar from heart surgery after returning from Long Beach. (Peter Chhun )
Press-Telegram Long Beach
By Greg Mellen, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 07/24/2008
Article Launched: 07/24/2008
Davik Teng got one last shiny bauble to put in her memory chest before returning to her tiny village in Cambodia.
The 9-year-old girl, brought to the United States by a Long Beach nonprofit for life-altering heart surgery, met Cambodia's king, Norodom Sihamoni, July 20 in a special audience in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
The king spent 40 minutes, well beyond the scheduled 15, with Davik, her mother, Sin Chhon, members of Hearts Without Boundaries and others in an 11-person group.
Peter Chhun, president of Hearts Without Boundaries, said the audience was an immense success.
"(The king) praised us for our work to save poor and suffering children," Chhun said. "I promised we'd continue."
The king donated $1,000 to Hearts Without Boundaries and offered future support.
L-R Davik Teng and her sister, Davin Teng, reunited in their village in Cambodia following a successful heart surgery for Davik in California. Photo By Peter Chhun for the Press Telegram
The king also gave Sin and Davik gifts and some money.
According to Chhun, the meeting was big news in the local press and a 15-minute news piece was devoted to it on national television.
Chhun, who returns to Long Beach Saturday, says the trip has been busy as he searches for another child in need of medical treatment.
L-R Sin Chhon, mother and Davik Teng meet the King of Cambodia, Norodom Sihamoni after returning from Long Beach, California following a successful heart surgery for Davik. Photo By Peter Chhun for the Press Telegram
In October, Chhun plans to return with surgeons from UC San Diego and Variety Children's Lifeline. It was during his trip with this group last year that Chhun first met Davik. Variety Children's Lifeline provides medical services to children with treatable, survivable heart ailments in developing countries.
If there is another child in need of more help than they can provide, Chhun hopes to have a deal in place with an American hospital to bring over another child.
Before Chhun could think of the next child, however, he had to close the books with Davik and Sin.
That meant reuniting them with Davik's older sister, Davin Teng, and returning them to their village of Svay Chrom.
Chhun said about 40 to 50 villagers showed up at the family compound to greet the mother and child and the crowd swelled to more than 100.
To celebrate the homecoming, Chhun arranged for local monks to hold a ceremony to bless Davik's "new soul."
Later, Davik obliged villagers by showing her surgical scar.
"The people were stunned," said Chhun.
"I'm so happy to see her back," Chhun says an elder told him. "At one point I thought she'd never come home."
Sin Chhon, mother and Davik Teng Photo by Peter Chhun for the Press Telegram
Davik appeared to take her return to the village in stride and Chhun said soon "it was like she never left.
"After changing clothes she went right away and joined her cousins and played," Chhun said. "I'm sure she had a lot to tell them."
For the mom, the return was not quite so blissful.
Chhun says after tearful greetings, Sin walked slowly to her small bamboo hut. Most of the slats that make up the front wall of the structure had come off in the recent rainy weather exposing the inside and the family's meager belongings.
As Sin placed a suitcase onto the raised area that is the family's floor and sleeping place, Chhun says she whispered "I feel like Davik and I have returned to the wrong place."
Chhun said he reminded her of the purpose of the journey.
Davik was discovered suffering from a heart ailment known as a ventricular septal defect. The quarter-sized hole in her heart caused it to work inefficiently and left her struggling to breathe, weak and unable to attend school.
Although the ailment is routinely repaired in the United States, it requires open heart surgery and use of a heart-lung machine. Sin had failed in attempts to have her daughter operated on in Cambodia and resigned herself to watching her child die young.
Dr. Vaughn Starnes, the surgeon who repaired the heart, said Davik may have survived into her 30s without treatment, although the condition would have progressively worsened.
Now, after the surgery, Davik is expected to live a full life without complications.
"Your journey to find a cure for your daughter has ended with great success," Chhun says he reminded Sin as they stood near her dilapidated hut. "You have been a great and strong mother and I want you to continue to be strong and raise your two daughters. Now you start a new chapter of your life. But you can do it knowing Davik will be healthy."
At that point, Sin's eyes still filled with tears, Chhun says she looked up and said in soft voice, "Thank you so much for your help."
HOW TO HELP
Hearts Without Boundaries is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that brings Cambodian children with life-threatening ailments to the United States for treatment and supports poor and suffering children in Cambodia. The group helped Davik Teng get her heart surgery.
It can be found online at heartswithoutboundaries.org, via e-mail at
or LuckyChhuon@ heartswithoutboundaries.org
or by calling Peter Chhun at 818-640-6191.
Sin Chhon, mother and Davik Teng returned to their village in Cambodia and found the front wall had blown off their hut.
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