Written by: Tzu-Kang Wang

Photographed by; Hui-Ping Wang

 

Helen Zink used to be a photographer with a steady income and house of her own.  Besides work, she enjoyed spending spare time reading a novel under the warm Southern California sunshine.

 

However, after being diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease, Helen immediately lost her job. The insurance company rejected her insurance, and she also lost her house due to the inability of making mortgage payments.  Her life became more devastated than ever until she was able to receive the government¡¦s financial aid with medical care. With the aid, she no longer had to worry about medical expenses, but she could just meet her basic needs.  After receiving several chemotherapies, her health condition was finally improved.  Yet her lack of energy could no longer support her to find work in the competitive society.

 

Helen¡¦s dental condition was highly affected by the chemotherapies.  Her unhealthy teeth became more and more loosened after each of the chemotherapies.  The only solution would be to put in artificial teeth, which was not covered by the government¡¦s aid.  Helen inquired a large amount of dentists, but none of the estimates came back less than USD$5,000, which, however, could only cover the artificial teeth.  The complete package including the entire treatments would cost far more than that. 

 

One of Helen¡¦s friends noticed about the dental service at the Tzu-Chi¡¦s free clinic and notified Helen.  She decided to seek help at the clinic and try her luck.  After she arrived at the clinic and seen by Dr. Shuan-Man Chen who was on duty, he decided that Helen¡¦s condition was in need of help.  In order to clarify Helen¡¦s health condition, Dr. Chen met with Dr. Chiao-Suo Huang, a cancer expert, and both decided to help Helen getting artificial teeth.  A light of hope rose in Helen¡¦s life after knowing the clinic had agreed to help.  She was referred to Dr. Chia-Chen Ye who was specialized in artificial teeth.  After evaluating Helen¡¦s dental condition, Dr. Ye recommended to replace all her teeth with a complete denture.  The next step would be to remove all the remaining teeth inside Helen¡¦s mouth.  Because of Helen¡¦s health history, the clinic sent Dr. Tai-Lin Chi, the oral surgeon best in teeth extraction, to fill in this job.  Since all the doctors at the free clinic are volunteers, Dr. Chi only sees patients here twice a month.  Due to Dr. Chi¡¦s tight schedule, he was not able to see Helen immediately.  So the wait continued.  However, Dr. Chi¡¦s excellent expertise had made both Helen¡¦s teeth extractions a great success.  The whole process was extremely fast and smooth.  Helen barely had any bleeding and the wound healed easily.  To Helen, this was the best help ever.

 

Dr. Ye made a complete denture impression for Helen and hoped from now on she could gain her energy back by abandoning the old days when her dental condition only allowed her to eat cheese and yogurt. During the process of making the impressions, Helen kept complimenting on how caring and loving every doctor was at the clinic.  Although she had to wait for a while for the denture, she was still thankful and grateful.