| HeraldNet - Snohomish County's online news source |
 TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2010 8:37 am |
ADVERTISEMENT |
|||||||||
 |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||
Local News 
|
||||||||||||||||||
Everett dentist travels world to help Everett dentist's Uganda trip just his most recent work with Air National Guard EVERETT — Some people get out their checkbooks when they want to help people overseas.Dr. Philip Clark joined the Air National Guard. The Everett dentist just returned from a two-week humanitarian mission with the Air National Guard reserves to Uganda. There, he spent 14 hours a day caring for Africans with agonizing mouth pain caused by decay and disease. Thousands lined up to see him and other American medical professionals. The experience, he said, reminded him that America is the best place on Earth. “All my patients have been really supportive,” he said. “They understand if I'm gone it's because I'm doing something that needs to be done.” His work was part of a larger humanitarian mission meant to help the Uganda government regain the trust of its people. Other U.S. servicemen and women helped with projects such as building schools and roads in the east African country. Clark, 46, traveled with a medical detachment that included doctors and optometrists. It's humanitarian missions like these that drew Clark into the reserves in 2005. “I just felt like I should give something back,” he said. He runs a civilian dental practice on Evergreen Way in Everett. At any time, the military can call him to duty to help stateside or abroad. He's filled in as a dentist on a U.S. base in Germany, treating American airmen. His position with the 194th Medical Group stationed at Camp Murray Air Guard Base also took him on another humanitarian mission to Cambodia in 2008, where he performed dental surgeries in a concrete shell in the middle of the jungle. “We're there to help them out and try to make their country a better place,” he said. In the Air National Guard, Clark has found dentists are in short supply. Most dentists avoid the military for fear of deployment, he said. Some dentists not only avoid the military because of the cut in pay and the danger of overseas work, but for what it does for a practice to be gone unexpectedly for months, he said. He's able to serve because he shares a practice with his father, who can care for his patients if he's called overseas. In fact, Clark is one member of a large family of dentists that includes his sister, uncle and cousins. In Uganda, Clark traveled to clinics in the northern part of the country, an area torn apart by fighting and horrendous abuses by rebel fighters. The Lord's Resistance Army, led by Joseph Kony, has waged one of Africa's longest and most violent rebellions. Tens of thousands of murders, mutilations and kidnapping of children for use as soldiers have been attributed to the rebel group. Clark saw the results in his brief time in the country, including children who'd had their lips cut off and limbs amputated. Still, he found the people and the land beautiful. Northern Uganda is the site of the headwater of the Nile. The countryside is a patchwork of cultivated land, rolling hills, tall mountains and dense jungle. Clinic conditions were far different than his sterile but cheery office in Everett. He worked in clinics that had no running water or electricity. Since the light was better outside, he worked standing up outdoors all day, a headlamp strapped to his forehead, while patients sat in plastic lawn chairs. Ugandan soldiers ringed the clinic, while a line of thousands of people waited for treatment. Everyone he saw badly needed his skills. He saw mouths ravaged by the effects of AIDS and other diseases. He saw as many as 25 patients a day, usually stopping when the days' ration of medicine ran out. Clark's next trip may be to Morocco this spring, although he could be called up at any time. That's OK with him. His bags are already packed. Debra Smith: 425-339-3197, dsmith@heraldnet.com |
- A revolutionary 747
- Fire breaks out at Everett car dealer
- Everett rethinks boutique wineries
- A tidy lawn could be law in Lynnwood
- Snohomish County's bargain housing won't last
- Boeing's 747-8 takes off after weather delay
- Plan for I-5 closures this week
- A new bowling alley for Monroe?
- Lake Stevens man homeless after fire
- I-5 bridge joint may give you a jolt, but it isn't damaged
- Vote on school levies by Tuesday
(9) - A tidy lawn could be law in Lynnwood (7)
- Everett rethinks boutique wineries (6)
- Toyota has powerful D.C. friends (5)
- Everett police officers cleared in 2008 shooting death (5)
- 1949 travel aid shows how few places blacks were welcome in Washington (4)
- I-5 bridge joint may give you a jolt, but it isn't damaged (3)
- Ex-Boeing engineer jailed for espionage (2)
- Cigarette causes life-threatening burns (2)
- ORCA a whale of an improvement for Community Transit (2)
- Edmonds educator, famous announcer dies
- Mill Creek to appeal ruling on annexation
- Through the air, with the greatest of ease
- E-W thriving under new coach
- The path to citizenship
- EUUC puts on ‘Pants & Shoes’
- Wolfpack wins the ‘Battle'
- Lynnwood’s annexation plans OK’d
- Arlington's Cascade Valley Hospital celebrates expansion, national award and 100 years of service
- Business Licences Feb. 2010
- Technology tips for launching your own business
- Business Events Feb. 2010
- Tech Talk: No excuse today for going without a Web site
- State already raising fees and rates that restrict business growth
- Some legislators again targeting people’s initiative petition rights
|
 
|
|
|
|
| TODAY'S TOP JOBS |
| View All Top Jobs |
| Top Cars |
|
| Top Homes |
|
|
ADVERTISEMENT |
|
|
|Contact Us
|Advertiser Services
|Home Delivery
|Newsstand Locations
|Classifieds
|Feedback
|About the Company
|Work@the Herald
|Site Map |
|
COMMENTS
Log in or register to post a new comment.
To read other terms and conditions, click here
Wow, this man is a true hero. To suffer toothache pain is like no other and for Dr. Clark to alleviate someone's suffering, if even just ONE person, in an undeveloped country is just amazing.
Thank you Dr. Clark for reaching out and changing someone's quality of life
Kathryn Harnecker | Nov 13, 2009 12:28 pm | 0 replies | Request removal
Post reply