"Than I remembered being at an orphanage in Central Asia. There the entire collection of dental equipment consists of a pair of pliers and a tin bowl containing the teeth of the last 40 victims.....I mean patients. Once a week they would get out the pliers and bowl and make the rounds . Up to 400 kids could be checked in a day.... same pliers, same bowl..... No filling..... No drilling.....No freezing.... No caps and masks and rubber gloves....only one tin bowl and pair of pliers. Suddenly I feel a little silly about my dentist phobia." From John Wright's Blog, www.actofkindness.blogspot.com .
As I saw the fear on Toktogul's face last night at the thought of more medical care for his cleft lip and palate, as I thought of the half missing molar currently in his lower jaw, I better understood where that fear came from. I recall hearing horror stories of a child from an orphanage in Kazakhstan having her tonsils removed with no anesthesia, many stories of others with so-called dental work consisting of John's description above, and of seeing Matthew ldesperately ill from something as simple as bronchitis that was diagnosed as "teething" by a "physician" in Kazahstan while we were still there, I shudder to think what many of those kids that are left behind are going through when sick or injured. I also wonder what has happened in Toktogul's past that we might never learn about.
No comments:
Post a Comment