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Bonni MacGregor dressed burn wounds with limited supplies while volunteering in Cambodia. “It has made me more sensitive to the different cultures I work with.”

Using precious bottled water, limited supplies and no access to a burn unit, RN Bonni MacGregor treated an older woman with burns on her leg and foot.

“I cleaned the wound and dressed it with the few items I had,” explained MacGregor, about her experience in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, as part of Health Teams International Canada. “I saw this woman for two more days and changed her dressings, which would quickly get dirty because shoes were too expensive to be worn.”

MacGregor didn’t expect her trip or the people she met to change her for life.

“I left a piece of myself with the people of Cambodia,” she said.

Travelling the area for two weeks providing medical clinics to underserved communities, MacGregor was part of a team providing dental, vision and medical care. She experienced the limited resources first-hand, with no running water, few electronics and single tables functioning as beds, work stations and eating surfaces.

“I recognize that we have so much in our country that we take for granted,” said MacGregor. “Fresh clean water, housing, health care, education and trustworthy police services. We have social programs that, while not perfect, do help to catch people who are in need. This kind of service does not exist in Cambodia.”

Bonni MacGregor (right) worked in Cambodia with her interpreter, Vicchai Hui, a second-year medical student. “He studies French one night a week and Korean one night a week,” she said. “He is an incredibly bright, enthusiastic young man who will be an amazing doctor.”

She and her team did their best to help a 15-year-old boy with advanced symptoms of Hepatitis.

“We were able to provide him with vitamins and food supplements but not a treatment to cure him,” she said. “I learned three weeks after my trip that this young man died. A hard reality to living in this kind of situation is that they have nothing. There is no health-care system to follow the individual. They are on their own.”

The genocide in Cambodia during the Pol Pot regime wiped out between 1.5 and 3 million civilians, nearly 25 percent of the country’s population, from 1975 to 1978.

“These people watched their neighbours and families die,” she said. “They were marched out to the countryside and made to live in terrible conditions. They were traumatized. There isn’t a clinic they can go to for help with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).”

Since she was a child, MacGregor has been exposed to missionaries and care teams travelling to countries around the world providing care to people who are less fortunate.

“I think travel alone brings a wealth of knowledge,” said MacGregor. “Our Geriatric Day Hospital brings in people from all walks of life. It is a benefit to The Ottawa Hospital having staff who may have a better understanding of the many walks of life we interact with. It has made me more sensitive to the different cultures I work with.”

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