Massage therapist Mishka Kohli Cira eases a youngster’s pain in the children’s cancer ward of the Vietnam National Hospital in Hanoi

She is an American Indian woman who speaks a different language from everyone else in the children’s cancer ward of the Vietnam National Hospital in Hanoi.

Mishka Kohli Cira, a member of the American Massage Therapy Association, came to Vietnam six months ago with her husband, who works for the World Bank, along with their two daughters.

Soon after her arrival she was introduced to the charity group Chap Canh Uoc Mo (nurturing your dream) and the tireless woman who runs it, Nguyen Phan Que Mai.

It was a visit to the hospital with Mai that brought Cira into contact with the pediatric cancer ward and left her with an overwhelming urge to help the children, who experience pain day after day.

Using her seven years’ experience of treating primary school pupils, Cira started massage therapy on the young patients.

Confident of what she is doing, Cira uses her hands flexibly, sometimes gently, sometimes pressing hard, and is always smiling at the children and giving them encouraging looks.

Dr. Bui Ngoc Lan, who heads the pediatric oncology department, says it is common in many countries for children with cancer to get massage therapy to complement their treatment.

Lai Van Cuong, whose son Lai Phuc Thinh has blood cancer, says Thinh is often in pain after being injected with chemicals, but Cira’s treatment helps his child greatly, and it’s been a great relief to him too.

“When Mishka first came here, I was very worried as my family could not afford the therapy. It’s amazing that it is free,” Cuong says.

Le Van Duc is one of the most critical cases in the ward since his AB blood type is rare and therefore hard to come by when a transfusion is needed.

Undaunted, Cira does what she can to ease Duc’s distress and his mother’s concern.

She says it is heart-rending to see young children in so much pain.

Since she cannot possibly treat all the patients herself, Cira, who has started working at the Kinesis Therapy Center in Hanoi, hopes to run a short course on massage therapy for the hospital’s nurses.

Now a member of the Chap Canh Uoc Mo charity for disadvantaged children, Cira says she will continue going to the ward frequently to help the kids during her husband’s four-year posting here.

Source: Tien Phong