Media Credit: Kaitlin Johnson
The Northern Light
7/29/08
Walking among the crowd that gathers daily outside the office at Children Surgical Centre there are some graphic sights. Children sitting in their mothers' arms display their empty eye sockets. Young men's burns bubble over with rancid pus. There are women wearing scarves to cover their melted faces; the acid victims.
Doctor James J. Gollogly strides through the crowd with impatient energy. He hollers at a Khmer nurse who hovers in his wake.
"Have you prepared the samples yet? They have to be sent to Belgium! This is very important now," he says with a smile fixed on his face. The more frustrated he gets, the wider his smile grows.
Gollogly - or Dr. Jim as everyone calls him - is founder, CEO and head surgeon of CSC, located outside Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Each day he and his team of local surgeons provide free treatment to impoverished Cambodians. Each year they save hundreds of lives and improve the lives of thousands.
CSC is an Alaskan non-governmental organization. Gollogly is an Alaskan doctor. He spent 20 years in Fairbanks, Alaska, teaching part time at UAF.
Gollogly decided to take a six month sabbatical to do volunteer work with the Red Cross in 1992 and was asked to come to Cambodia. Initially he rejected the request.
Cambodia was ravaged after years of political instability following first the American-Vietnam War and then the Khmer Rouge's genocidal communist regime in the late 70's. After the Khmer Rouge was ousted, they continued to terrorize the country in guerilla style warfare for the next decade. The country had only semi-stabilized recently, at the beginning of the 90's.
"I said; 'look guys, I'm British. I had nothing to do with your war. I don't have anything to do with cleaning up your mess.' When I said volunteer, I meant Africa," Gollogly said.
He reconsidered and went to Cambodia, although his first day there made him wish he hadn't.
While he was sitting bored in a meeting, people outside began to shout. Three land mine victims had arrived in the back of a trailer. One had lost part of an arm, the other had a head wound and a third looked fine but was obviously in shock. Gollogly was asked to operate immediately on the boy who had lost his arm. He amputated below the elbow and stabilized the boy.
It was noon so the local staff left for lunch. Before following, Gollogly decided to check on the other victims. The head wound boy had disappeared but the third was still lying in the trailer covered in blood. Shrapnel had punctured an artery and no one had noticed. Gollogoly tried to revive him, but the boy died.
Gollogly returned to the amputee. What he saw was shocking.
"There was no one around him. He was dead on the table," he said.
The boy had choked on his own vomit and died.
"I thought; 'what kind of hell hole is this?'" Gollogly said.
He spent the next six months performing surgeries and training local doctors. When he left however, there was no one to replace him and the local team fell out of practice. Cambodia was still in desperate need of qualified surgeons.
With the help of contacts he'd made during his time with the Red Cross, Gollogly began to conceptualize CSC. He returned to Cambodia in 1998 and opened the center.
At first CSC focused on treating land mine victims, however, as Gollogly saw need for other types of medical care, his center expanded.
CSC has grown into one of the most respected hospitals in Cambodia. Gollogly's team includes plastic surgeons, ophthalmologists, and physiotherapists as well as frequent visiting specialists. Gollogly is the only orthopedic surgeon in Cambodia.
CSC is a bright point in Cambodian health care. It provides food and transportation to rural patients and is involved in many rural outreach programs. The staff is well trained and supervised by Gollogly.
One 5-year-old girl arrived at CSC with a large tumor growing from her face. The tumor had grown so large that it swallowed her face and Jachriel, the child, couldn't eat except through a tube. Her parents had already sold all their farmland at a much reduced price to pay for treatment at a government hospital. After their money had been bled dry, someone suggested they try CSC.
Gollogly authorized free chemotherapy for the girl and sought more advanced treatment in Hong Kong. After hospitals in Hong Kong determined that any attempt of surgery was too risky, Gollogly found room for the child at Cambodia Acid Survivor Charity - another of his clinics - where Jachriel can live out the rest of her life.
"She's 5 years old. She understands when people point at her and what they say about her. She pulls a blanket over her face. At CASC she can get some privacy," said Gollogly.
He employed Jachriel's father as a maintenance man at CSC. This gives the family a source of income and allows her mother to spend time with her.
Gollogly predicts Jachriel will not live long. The child asked to have her tube taken out so she can taste food while she's alive. Gollogly says that she will slowly starve to death. Her family is now impoverished as they have sold their home.
Many families share Jachriel's story, said Gollogly. They go to the government hospitals and loose everything they own and when money stops, so does treatment. Then they have no where to turn, except towards Dr. Jim.
7/29/08
Walking among the crowd that gathers daily outside the office at Children Surgical Centre there are some graphic sights. Children sitting in their mothers' arms display their empty eye sockets. Young men's burns bubble over with rancid pus. There are women wearing scarves to cover their melted faces; the acid victims.
Doctor James J. Gollogly strides through the crowd with impatient energy. He hollers at a Khmer nurse who hovers in his wake.
"Have you prepared the samples yet? They have to be sent to Belgium! This is very important now," he says with a smile fixed on his face. The more frustrated he gets, the wider his smile grows.
Gollogly - or Dr. Jim as everyone calls him - is founder, CEO and head surgeon of CSC, located outside Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Each day he and his team of local surgeons provide free treatment to impoverished Cambodians. Each year they save hundreds of lives and improve the lives of thousands.
CSC is an Alaskan non-governmental organization. Gollogly is an Alaskan doctor. He spent 20 years in Fairbanks, Alaska, teaching part time at UAF.
Gollogly decided to take a six month sabbatical to do volunteer work with the Red Cross in 1992 and was asked to come to Cambodia. Initially he rejected the request.
Cambodia was ravaged after years of political instability following first the American-Vietnam War and then the Khmer Rouge's genocidal communist regime in the late 70's. After the Khmer Rouge was ousted, they continued to terrorize the country in guerilla style warfare for the next decade. The country had only semi-stabilized recently, at the beginning of the 90's.
"I said; 'look guys, I'm British. I had nothing to do with your war. I don't have anything to do with cleaning up your mess.' When I said volunteer, I meant Africa," Gollogly said.
He reconsidered and went to Cambodia, although his first day there made him wish he hadn't.
While he was sitting bored in a meeting, people outside began to shout. Three land mine victims had arrived in the back of a trailer. One had lost part of an arm, the other had a head wound and a third looked fine but was obviously in shock. Gollogly was asked to operate immediately on the boy who had lost his arm. He amputated below the elbow and stabilized the boy.
It was noon so the local staff left for lunch. Before following, Gollogly decided to check on the other victims. The head wound boy had disappeared but the third was still lying in the trailer covered in blood. Shrapnel had punctured an artery and no one had noticed. Gollogoly tried to revive him, but the boy died.
Gollogly returned to the amputee. What he saw was shocking.
"There was no one around him. He was dead on the table," he said.
The boy had choked on his own vomit and died.
"I thought; 'what kind of hell hole is this?'" Gollogly said.
He spent the next six months performing surgeries and training local doctors. When he left however, there was no one to replace him and the local team fell out of practice. Cambodia was still in desperate need of qualified surgeons.
With the help of contacts he'd made during his time with the Red Cross, Gollogly began to conceptualize CSC. He returned to Cambodia in 1998 and opened the center.
At first CSC focused on treating land mine victims, however, as Gollogly saw need for other types of medical care, his center expanded.
CSC has grown into one of the most respected hospitals in Cambodia. Gollogly's team includes plastic surgeons, ophthalmologists, and physiotherapists as well as frequent visiting specialists. Gollogly is the only orthopedic surgeon in Cambodia.
CSC is a bright point in Cambodian health care. It provides food and transportation to rural patients and is involved in many rural outreach programs. The staff is well trained and supervised by Gollogly.
One 5-year-old girl arrived at CSC with a large tumor growing from her face. The tumor had grown so large that it swallowed her face and Jachriel, the child, couldn't eat except through a tube. Her parents had already sold all their farmland at a much reduced price to pay for treatment at a government hospital. After their money had been bled dry, someone suggested they try CSC.
Gollogly authorized free chemotherapy for the girl and sought more advanced treatment in Hong Kong. After hospitals in Hong Kong determined that any attempt of surgery was too risky, Gollogly found room for the child at Cambodia Acid Survivor Charity - another of his clinics - where Jachriel can live out the rest of her life.
"She's 5 years old. She understands when people point at her and what they say about her. She pulls a blanket over her face. At CASC she can get some privacy," said Gollogly.
He employed Jachriel's father as a maintenance man at CSC. This gives the family a source of income and allows her mother to spend time with her.
Gollogly predicts Jachriel will not live long. The child asked to have her tube taken out so she can taste food while she's alive. Gollogly says that she will slowly starve to death. Her family is now impoverished as they have sold their home.
Many families share Jachriel's story, said Gollogly. They go to the government hospitals and loose everything they own and when money stops, so does treatment. Then they have no where to turn, except towards Dr. Jim.
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