A 4am start was required to get to the airport for the first flight out to Phnom Penh on Sunday. I called Andy from the taxi, as he has a track record of not being up on time, but found that he had decided not to go to bed this time.  It became quicky apparent  upon seeing him that he had been partying instead. Chris Snell and Carl Griffith turned up ready to go and were closely followed by George who has very kindly given up his time to do the video camera work. If you know how senior George is in the business (his last gig was producing the Liverpool v Singapore match), you will understand this could seem like overkill but we are very grateful to have him along.

We flew without event into Siam Reap before an onward flight to Phnom Penh. When we disembarked, there seemed to be some confusion on what to do with us but eventually a lady took us down the stairs, on to the tarmac and showed us through a back door out into the car park at the airport. This could have been viewed as very efficient and indeed Andy was celebrating the fact he had not had to part with $20USD for a visa. It then dawned on us, we were now illegal immigrants in Cambodia and we didn’t even have our luggage. We re-traced our route and 20 mins later we found ourselves back where we started and facing some embarrassed airport officials who now realised that their airport security had been pretty badly compromised.

The wonderful Emma, our liason at CSC, met us at the airport and we headed to the hotel to drop bags. The hospital does not do do surgery on Sunday so Emma, Andy, George and Carl headed off to see some of city whilst Chris and I headed to the Foreign Correspondents Club (FCC) to do some writing (how else did you think the blogs got written and the websites updated)

7.45am today and we headed over to Dr Jim’s Chenda clinic, a facility of CSC, to get our scrubs which is the clothing you wear for operating theatre. Chris, who is our resident comedian, having done stand-up, spent the next  20 mins doing Grey’s Anatomy jokes. We were then driven to the CSC hospital where upon arrival we could see a hundred or so people already waiting to be seen on the first set of consultations of the week. The guys were paired off with some medical students from the UK who were in town and who had started the consultations and I headed off to spend my morning with Dr Jim.

It is hard to describe the energy of a CSC, it is invigorating. Everyone has purpose and regardless of how may people are waiting outside to be seen, you know their day will end better than it started because of the CSC team. Dr Jim and I started in the operating room as he checked on the operations for the day. Monday’s are normally quieter in the OR as the consultations normally see people get scheduled for the Tuesday as they have probably eaten that morning. However, there was already a young lady in being prepped for a toe amputation as she had six toes on each foot and on the other table was a young boy having a hernia operation.

Dr Jim asked me to go get a medical student and whichever one of my lads that was shadowing so they could  would scrub up and he would do the amputation. Vanda’s very own Andy was the lucky man and he experienced his very first operation which included assisting Dr Jim in the proceedure. Meanwhile, on the other table, a baby who was 6 months old was having a cleft palate operated on and Carl Griffiths was assisting the surgeon and clearly enjoying the experience.

During a typical Khymer lunch we were discussing the cleft palate surgery on babies and Chris was telling us that he and his wife had forgone a wedding list to have people donate to have cleft surgery done via The Smile Train. It was therefore a very happy Chris that spent the next two hours in theatre assisting on a cleft surgery for a 5 month old little boy. This video is Chris at the table about 1 hr in.

I spent my afternoon with Dr Jim and we saw a huge variety of cases. One patient’s results came back as cancer so we went to his bedside to tell him that time was against him and he should head home. Another was a hemophiliac that needed risked bleeding to death every time his wound dressing was changed having been amputated on one leg to the knee. He need to get specialist care and that was discussed. We then moved on to a fresh burns victim, this time a male who had had one skin graft following a having acid thrown all over his body and the one ear. Words can’t describe the horror of an acid attack and the pain they go through healing. Each time a dressing is changed it is agony and I witnessed human bravery at its best.

Finally we went to see the eye surgeons as they finished off. They had completed 17 operations that day and the same would happen again tomorrow. Every person seen today, every operation, every procedure and follow up is done by CSC at no charge. They receive no funding apart from donations and that is why we continue to support them. Today, like in previous trips, we have converted another four guys, having witnessed the wonders the team does. Tomorrow we will be in theatre at 8am to witness 9 operations scheduled and witness another incredible day at Children’s Surgical Centre in Cambodia.