Great Niece Of Famous Doctor Returns To Cambodia As Part Of PCOM GA Mission Trip
Gwinnett Daily Post, By Chris Starrs Staff Correspondent
Sep 15, 2024
Although he is perhaps best known for winning an Academy Award for his performance in the 1984 drama “The Killing Fields,” the late Dr. Haing S. Ngor had an existence much like the character he portrayed in the film — surviving Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge death camps of the 1970s that claimed some 2 million lives.
Ngor, trained as a medical doctor, was able to escape Cambodia and bring his young niece, Sophia Ngor Demetri (whose parents were murdered by the Khmer Rouge), to the United States in 1979.
Although Sofia’s daughter Brooke Demetri never met her great uncle — who was murdered in California in 1996 — she’s intent on continuing the courageous and lifesaving work for which he was known.
Demetri is a second-year medical student at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM) in Suwanee and this summer spent time with fellow students on a mission trip in Cambodia, where they provided a variety of medical services to about 500 patients.
“I love getting involved in the community and doing community work,” said Demetri. “I never thought I’d have the opportunity to travel to my family’s country and give back there. When I heard that Dr. (Donald) Penney (PCOM professor and neurosurgeon who is also double board certified in emergency medicine) was organizing a mission trip to Cambodia, I decided this was the year to do that. I love learning more about my family’s culture and giving back to communities that don’t have anything.”
The New York native, who earned her bachelor’s degree in neuroscience at State University of New York at Geneseo, said PCOM representatives spent a week in June in Cambodia and she stayed an additional week visiting with family members.
“We opened up a free clinic where anyone could come,” she said. “I think we saw more than 500 patients. One day, we saw 200 — it was non-stop. You could equate it to an urgent care operation; people would come and we’d take their history and physical exams. We prescribed medications and saw a lot of things we wouldn’t have seen in the United States.
“That takes me back a little bit because if (Dr. Ngor) was here, he’d be so proud to see our school go to Cambodia and do what he did. It gives me chills thinking about it. It was his life’s mission to build up Cambodia again and help the families who lost everything.”
Demetri — whose great uncle was the subject of a 2015 documentary “The Killing Fields of Dr. Haing S. Ngor” — said her mother began telling her stories of the killing fields and her great uncle as she got older, and Demetri added she filled in some blanks with an undergraduate course she took.
“In college, I took a genocide course and did extensive research on the Cambodian genocide,” said Demetri. “I learned more about Cambodia in general and what my uncle went through. My mother waited until we were older because it was hard for her to talk about it.
“(Dr. Ngor) got recognition and had a platform and wanted to give back to Cambodia. He worked with the Red Cross and built orphanages there — that was so important to him.”
Demetri, who established her own foundation in New York called the Healing Hope Project to bring awareness to eating disorders and other mental health issues, was a competitive figure skater for 15 years and was also an actor and singer. And like her great uncle, she’s pursuing medicine.
“My mom says she wishes my uncle was here because we have such parallel lives,” said Demetri, whose medical interest is in pediatrics. “I feel grateful every day to continue doing what he wanted in his life.”
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