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Team of doctors aids kids with special needs at the SDA Clinic
With some children having to wait as long as four to five months for treatment because of complications due to their special needs and their young age, the arrival of a team of professionals to administer anesthesia and dental care comes as a great relief to Claudine Benig, mother of Irish Benig, a special needs child who could not undergo normal dental care without the aid of anesthesia.
According to Seventh Day Adventist’s clinic director Dr. Ken Pierson, the volunteers arrived from California last week and are here for two weeks to help children and parents who otherwise could only have found treatment off-island.
From left, Dr. Kenneth W. Pierson, Melissa Harness, RN, Dr. Shawn Fox, and SDA Dental Clinic’s Cygi Cepeda. (Dennis B. Chan)
The team is made up of Dr. Shawn Michael Fox, dentist; Dr. Kenneth W. Pierson, anesthesiologist; and registered nurse Melissa Harness.
“The key is you got to have a licensed and qualified anesthesiologist, and then you’ve got to have someone who is familiar with doing treatment under general anesthesia,” director Pierson said about treatment for special needs children under the age of 6 or 7.
Fox said he has worked with children with attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism, Down syndrome, and cerebral palsy, among others. Many of these children undergo dental treatment under anesthesia because of the difficulty in getting them to cooperate.
“It’s best to get them to sleep to ensure the work is done correctly,” Fox said.
Pierson said the volunteer team’s type of treatment is not readily available on Saipan, and that there is a tremendous need for this kind of work as potentially 45 or 50 children may be treated this week and next.
He noted the medical and flight costs may prevent children and their parents from getting treatment.
Benig said her daughter had to wait for about two months before being treated Thursday. She said the swelling in her daughter’s mouth would cause fevers.
Previously, she said, she had relied on antibiotics in helping her daughter.
The volunteers work together at pediatric clinic in Visalia, California.
“I like doing mission work, and giving back to the communities, and other communities as well as my own. That’s probably the biggest reason [for volunteering], there’s a big need for it,” Fox said.
