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Montreal Surgeon Followed Adventure
Dr Jean Gabriel has come a long way since he left home in
Montreal, Canada.
He began practicing in 1979 in Canada and was an orthopedic surgeon
for 10 years before seeking more adventure with the International
Committee of the Red Cross.
Indeed, Dr Gabriel got plenty of adventure—tending victims of the
Afghanistan fighting in Peshawar; coming to Cambodia in 1990 and
1991 to help out in Kampot and Sisophon; off to Kabul for another
stint with the fallout from Afghani strife; then onward to Sudan,
where the civil war was giving doctors plenty of business.
Dr Gabriel next decided he could do more good by staying in one spot
for a while and came back to Cambodia to tend to sick children at
the Kantha Bopha Hospital for four years.
He finally decided to enter private practice at a singularly
interesting time—July 1997. The Ta Cheng Hospital on Mao Tse Tung
Boulevard had been headed by a Chinese doctor, who bailed out during
the turbulent “events,” and Dr Gabriel took his place at the
clinic, located just west of the Chinese Embassy.
Now he has settled down, Dr Gabriel still manages to keep busy
overseeing a hospital that has 20 beds, both medical and surgical.
His Cambodian counterpart is Dr Chan Seng, a general physician, and
the third doctor is the Chinese-trained Dr Liu Gui Chun.
With its multinational staff, Ta Cheng is able to communicate with
patients in Chinese, French, English, Japanese and Khmer.
Dr Gabriel’s expertise as an orthopedic surgeon has earned him a
high reputation locally and brings him many referrals from other
physicians, keeping his operating room busy much of the time.
Despite the costly equipment and the clinic’s extensive
facilities, the stated philosophy at Ta Cheng is that nobody will be
refused service for reasons of poverty.
Although the basic consultation fee is $30, if a person cannot
afford that, it can be as low as $5. Fees for surgery vary but may
also be negotiated in circumstances of need, Dr Gabriel says.
He may not be in the thick of geopolitical turmoil any more, but Dr
Gabriel is still able to satisfy his wish to help the needy.
—Elizabeth Wright
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