DR. V

AN INCIDENT OCCURRED prior to Rose’s arrival in Kratie that greatly enhanced the reputation of the MEDICO clinic. One morning Manny was urgently summoned to Governor Thep Sunthi’s office. “My mother-in-law has broken her leg,” the governor told him. “Dr. Om Yen and a traditional healer are treating her upstairs and it’s not going well. I would like you to have a look, because I don’t think she will live through the pain.” Judging by the howls of pain emanating from the upstairs room of the governor’s palatial villa, it was clear that things were indeed not going well. When Manny entered the room, he saw two traditional healers massaging the old woman’s leg to set the broken bones. Observing them was Om Yen, the head of the provincial hospital, and several nurses. Every time they would massage the leg, the governor’s mother-in-law would scream in pain. Manny could see that the woman was in danger of going into shock from the pain. The governor motioned to Manny to meet him outside. “What do you think?” asked the governor. “I can tell you what I know,” Manny replied. “If she has a broken bone in the leg, and these men continue to massage the leg, she won’t survive. She will faint, her blood pressure will fall because of the excruciating pain, and she will die.” The governor was exasperated by all that had transpired. “What should we do?” “They must stop massaging the leg immediately. We have to give her intravenous fluids because she is dehydrated. Then we have to give her something for the pain.” The governor went back into the room while Manny waited outside. The next thing he knew, the traditional healers, Om Yen, and the nurses filed out of the room one by one. They eyed Manny suspiciously. The governor followed and authorized Manny to take over. “Try to give her some water,” Manny instructed. “I’ll get what I need, and we can take care of this.” Manny returned shortly with adrenaline, morphine, and intravenous (IV) fluids. Once IV fluids were started and the morphine administered, the pain subsided and her condition stabilized. When Manny examined her leg, it was black and blue and swollen from the massage. He could hardly touch the leg to feel for the break. Then he informed the governor of his plan. “I will need an X-ray to determine if her leg is broken and which bone is involved. Then I can set the broken bone properly. We don’t have an X-ray machine here. There is a fluoroscope at the French plantation about forty km from here. This is not exactly an X-ray machine, but it will allow me to determine which bone is broken and how the break must be set. We will have to transport her there, but I am not sure if she can survive the trip. That’s our only chance.” The governor considered Manny’s proposal. In view of what had transpired and the options available for his mother-in-law, this seemed the best one. He instructed his staff to bring his jeep around, a mattress was laid in the back, and the woman was placed gingerly on the mattress, the leg splinted to prevent further trauma. Manny rode alongside her to steady the IV, adrenaline and morphine in hand should he need to use it. The governor sent motorcycle police to notify the French nurse at the rubber plantation that they were coming, and the motorcade proceeded cautiously to the plantation. When they arrived, the fluoroscope was functioning, but it could not be rotated to get a clear view of the old woman’s leg while she reclined on the examining table. To Manny this seemed like an evolving nightmare. With the help of the French nurse, they lifted the woman in front of the fluoroscope so that Manny could view the leg. He quickly saw that she had a displaced fracture of the fibula, and instructed the team to lay her down. As they returned the woman to the mattress, she went into shock. Fortunately Manny was able to revive her with a shot of adrenaline. Manny had brought plaster to put the leg in a cast, which would keep the leg immobilized for at least six weeks. When the traditional healers saw the leg in the cast, they immediately predicted that the leg would rot. For the next six weeks, Manny visited the woman every day to check her progress. She had many complaints—the cast was too bulky, the cast was too tight, the leg was swollen—but these seemed to subside with time. Manny could not tell if the bone was healing properly because he could not risk transporting her back to the rubber plantation to view the bone on the fluoroscope. Finally, after six weeks, it was time to remove the cast. A crowd had assembled in the governor’s office to witness the event. Manny had a rotary electric saw to remove the cast. When the observers saw the instrument, they thought he was going to amputate her leg. Manny carefully cut through the plaster and wedged it apart. The leg looked good. The muscles had atrophied, the skin was pink and healthy, and most important, the leg had not rotted as the traditional healers had predicted. There was no pain as he raised the woman to an upright position. Then he tried to get her to stand. Tentative, uncertain, and scared, the woman refused to put weight on the leg. The group sat there for half an hour as Manny coaxed her to stand. Gradually, she put pressure on the leg and felt no pain. She stood up and was able to stand alone without pain. The woman was ecstatic, the governor was grateful, and the crowd was astonished by the miraculous cure. From this point onward, Manny was like a demigod to the governor and the people of Kratie. People flocked to the clinic in even greater numbers. The governor insisted that Manny accompany him on visits to the Montagnard hill tribe people. While the governor dealt with administrative issues, Manny would provide basic medical care to the people and distribute Meals for Millions supplements. The Kratie MEDICO clinic was getting more publicity in both Cambodia and the international community. Tom Dooley had written about it in his book, The Night They Burned the Mountain. Originally cool to Manny’s clinic in Cambodia, the American Embassy was now overtly supportive, trying to conflate the MEDICO clinic in Kratie with the benevolence of US assistance to Cambodia. The US Embassy regularly sent supplies to Kratie. Manny and Rose even received a water heater for their quarters compliments of the US Embassy.