Area mother, daughter take fulfilling trip to help others

via Khmer NZ

August 29, 2010

New Smyrna Beach dentist Jan Westberry works on one of the hundreds of patients she treated during two months of volunteering with Pacific Partnership 2010 aboard the USNS Mercy. Jan Westberry

When Jan Westberry saw an announcement in one of her dentistry magazines about the need for volunteers to travel to Third World nations and provide humanitarian medical aid, she showed it to her daughter.

Then the University of Florida pre-dentistry student showed her mom the pictures of her 2009 South American cruise on the U.S. Navy hospital ship Comfort, and the adventurer in Westberry surfaced.

"I am a timid traveler," the New Smyrna Beach dentist said.

The idea of sleeping in a tent or out in the open didn't appeal to Westberry, 57, at all. Still, the prospect of helping people and knowing she would be living aboard the displacement hospital ship, prompted her to apply to participate in Pacific Partnership 2010.

"With the U.S. Navy, I knew I would feel safe," Westberry said. "And aboard ship I knew I would have a bed and a shower.

Pre-dental student and New Smyrna Beach resident Wendy Westberry poses with one of the people she helped while volunteering with Pacific Partnership 2010 in Cambodia. Jan Westberry

"Life is short and I wanted an adventure before I got too old," she said.

That was in January. A couple of months later she got word she had been accepted to join more than 1,000 military, civilian and governmental personnel, both foreign and U.S., aboard the Comfort's sister ship, the U.S.N.S. Mercy, during its visits to ports in Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia.

She was aboard to offer her expertise to people who likely had never seen a dentist before -- much less been treated by one.

Pacific Partnership 2010 was the fifth of the U.S. Navy Pacific fleet's humanitarian assistance program in place to enhance relations between the United States and the host countries. The 4-year-old project provides medical, dental and engineering outreach for the civilian populations of countries in need. During that time, it has served thousands of civilian patients in 10 countries.

"This is a life-changing experience," said Dr. Irvin Silverstein, of the University of California in San Diego's Pre-Dental Society. His work with the Navy on its aid mission to Southeast Asia during the 2006 tsunami helped spark the partnership, which now provides about 100 volunteers for each voyage.

From June 13 to Aug. 9, Westberry and her daughter, Wendy, spent their days doing extractions, putting in fillings, fixing cleft lips and performing other dental procedures. Westberry's son, Will, a 21-year-old UF biology major, spent two weeks with the pair during the trip.

"He did scut work," his mother said.

Between working ashore in 100-degree heat and treating patients aboard ship, the family matriarch said the work was exhausting, fulfilling and memorable.

She recalled the surgery to close a man's cleft lip, which gave him the appearance of having a gaping hole in his face.

"He looked like a monster," Dr. Westberry said. But when the team was done, they had not only closed the gap in his upper lip, but also created a device to fit over his cleft palate so he could eat normally.

"After the surgery, he sat down at the table and started shoveling food in," she recalled with a smile.

Another memory hangs around Westberry's neck. A Cambodian woman needed such extensive work they took her aboard the ship and worked on her for two days, extracting teeth, giving her fillings, and even making her a partial set of dentures.

"She was so grateful, she reached around her neck, removed her necklace -- a small cross hung from a bead-chain -- and gave it to me," Westberry said. "But the hardest challenge was not being able to help or save some of the people."

None of the Westberry clan classified the trip as "a pleasure cruise,",but it was an experience they will never forget.

"This was a once in a lifetime opportunity," Jan Westberry said. "Something I would like to do again."