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Medical Mission Possible: Vietnam

By Regina Ancola-Upton

In November 1997 I traveled to Vietnam for the Kansas City based Medical Mission Foundation. I was privileged to be part of a group of 26 medical professionals, including physicians, nurses, and technicians from all across America. Our mission was to perform plastic surgery on poor and underprivileged children at the Da Nang Hospital (Quang Tach) and Quang Son Clinic, and to deliver much-needed medical supplies and equipment.

During the tiring 18-hour flight over the Pacific, I wondered what challenges were awaiting us in this country that had endured a thousand years of cruel Chinese imperialism, followed by a hundred years of brutal French colonialism, followed by fifteen years of an unjust and immoral American War, followed by over two decades of international isolation. What we found were very warm welcomes from the hospital staff and patients - and health care facilities and resources that were less than basic.

Yes, it was a challenge to perform the surgeries and provide the care that our long-deprived patients required. Yet working side by side with our Vietnamese hosts we overcame the obstacles (language, few operating rooms) and repaired the cleft palates and/or cleft lips of twenty-eight Vietnamese children and a 29-year-old adult's cleft palate.

On the last day of our mission, which had added a new dimension to our lives, the physicians and staff of Da Nang Hospital bid goodbye to each of us during a simple luncheon. Their carefully prepared and delivered speeches touched everyone, and feelings of sadness and gladness mixed together to make us cry. In his parting words, one of the Vietnamese physicians told us, "Each of you has sacrificed your time to share your talents...Treasure the experience, and thus, the meaning of life."

It started before him, but it is evident that since President Clinton's lifting of the unjust and immoral embargo, Vietnam is moving rapidly to liberalize its economy and attract foreign investment. After centuries of war, occupation and partition, a united Vietnam is emerging as Asia's most exciting new frontier for business and tourism.

We made the most of our free time, and our tour guide, Song, patiently guided our city-to-city bus rides through mountainous passes, past magnificent temples and ruins, and along the white beaches.

The Vietnamese people are warm, friendly, and cosmopolitan. And Vietnamese culture is undergoing a renaissance, marked by the reappearance of traditional dances and unique musical instruments unseen throughout the war years.

Upon seeing a disabled veteran of the American War, proudly wearing his tattered field jacket and selling replicas of NVA pith helmets, I wondered if he might have fought against my husband in '69. I wondered how things could have been if the American government had allowed Vietnam's national unification elections, scheduled for July 20, 1956, to take place.

Regina Upton, RN, CCRN, is a member of VVAW's Kansas City chapter, mother of VVAW member Nikki Upton, and wife of VVAW's Midwest Coordinator Doc Upton.