By Greg Mellen, Staff Writer
Posted: 08/18/2010
Phin Ken, and his daughter, Socheat Nha during the the Cambodian New Year Parade in Long Beach in April. (Jeff Gritchen/Press-Telegram)
LOS ANGELES - As Peter Chhun led his small band of travelers through the gates to board a flight to Taipei and onward to Cambodia, he was close to the end of one of his most arduous trips to date.
This is the third time Chhun, founder of the fledgling Hearts Without Boundaries nonprofit, has been able to broker a deal to have a destitute child from his home country of Cambodia receive heart surgery. But it was by no means the easiest.
Six months ago, Chhun brought a now 3-year-old Socheat Nha and her farmer father, Phin Ken, to the U.S. for what should have been a straight-forward process.
But the story went sideways before a solution was found. Socheat was diagnosed with heart defects that required closing a hole, called a ventricular septal defect, and repair of the pulmonary artery between the heart and lungs.
However, her condition was so bad upon arrival that doctors canceled surgery because of the risk.
All seemed lost until the International Children's Hearts Foundation, a nonprofit specializing in children from Third World countries, agreed to fix Socheat's heart in the Dominican Republic.
"We were lucky. We were lucky," Chhun said Tuesday night as he prepared to return to Cambodia with Socheat, her dad and Davik Teng, an 11-year-old girl who was Hearts Without Boundaries' first patient. She was back in the U.S. to meet donors and have doctors assess her recovery.
The happy homecoming for Socheat almost was not.
"Close is not the word. I said 'Forget it. I'll never make it,"' recalled Chhun.
Already, he had spent personal money to bring Socheat to the U.S. Now he needed to fly to the Dominican Republic and pay $5,000 for the hospital stay which neither Chhun nor the organization had.
"I told them we couldn't do it," Chhun said. "They looked at me in such a way. Of course, (Phin) never said anything, but he looked so sad."
Refusing to accept defeat, Chhun rallied donors and the community and raised enough money to pay for the trip and surgery.
Today, Chhun can laugh at the irony that he brought the girl to the U.S. only to have to leave for treatment.
He recalls Phin looking at him in the airport in Santiago, Dominican Republic.
"He said, 'Wait a minute. I just came from a Third World country. What's this, another Third World country?"'
Ken had already risked everything. Before meeting Chhun, the rice farmer had sold two plots of land passed down through his family in a desperate, failed attempt to get Socheat treated in Cambodia.
"I was criticized by my neighbors, because I am a farmer and without land I can't work," Ken said through translation.
Ken said he was told it was foolish because his daughter's condition couldn't be cured.
"But I decided it was the right thing to do, because I had to do SOMETHING. If it works, good. If not, at least we did SOMETHING. But I never thought today would come," Ken said.
In the Dominican Republic, Ken said he realized he had come too far to turn back.
Luckily, despite the surroundings and the travelers' misgivings, the treatment was first rate.
When asked if the difficulties made the success any sweeter for him, Chhun said, "No."
Chhun said saving the child's life is all that matters, regardless of the process and obstacles.
"Because this girl could have gone back to Cambodia without surgery. I think the donors and the community should be prouder," Chhun said.
The obstacles were just a memory as well-wishers, donors and volunteers in Socheat's odyssey gathered to say good-bye to the effervescent toddler and her attentive dad.
One was Lauren Briand, a recent graduate of Millikan High, who raised money with a garage sale and hawking wristbands with Socheat's name.
Briand presented Socheat a necklace with a little heart-shaped pendant.
So excited was the toddler, she removed her dress to better show off the jewelry.
"She looks so different, so beautiful, Lauren's mom, Debbie, said as Socheat happily chattered away in Khmer and entertained the gathering.
Chhun said the journey with Socheat and Davik had brought another epiphany.
Chhun says he realized it is not enough to merely fix the hearts of children and return them to destitution. As a result, he is hoping to find a way to partner with other donors or nonprofits to provide education for the children.
At 11 years old, wearing designer jeans, an embroidered jacket and carrying a purse the size of a small RV, Davik looks like she could be any sprouting American kid.
She has already become a fan of Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift and Akon.
The look and tastes belie a harsher truth. Which is that she is going home to a one-room hut with no running water or electricity.
Because of her ailment, she was late starting school and has only a second-grade education. She is barely literate in her native language.
Donors have agreed to pay her education costs and Davik will enter a private school in Battambang in the fall.
Likewise, Socheat, an uncommonly bright child who learned the alphabet in five days and can count into the hundreds in English, could face a grim future.
Her dad doesn't know how or what work he will find when he gets back.
Chhun says he thought it was once enough to say, "I brought you would with a broken heart and now you're back with a working heart. Right now, we realize that's not the way to do it. It's such a waste to have this heart that is pumping good, but for what? Without an education, there's nothing to do. (My mission) is deeper now."
As Chhun, Davik and Socheat boarded their plane, their journey was coming to an end. And it was just beginning.
greg.mellen@presstelegram.com , 562-499-1291
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