About Tumorid's inventor Karen Yanhs

My name is Karen Yanhs-Anderson (楊劍虹). I was born in Cambodia with ethnic Chinese parents during the Pol Pot era. My family was fortunate enough to escape the Killing Fields into Vietnam. We were very fortunate to have a breather for a couple of good years during U.S. occupation before the Viet Cong took over Saigon. We went from the frying pan into the fire because we were caught in Saigon during the Vietnam War. Several years after the communists took over Vietnam, we once again escaped as Boat People. Our family was one of the lucky few to arrive in Thailand, and from there, we immigrated to the U.S. During the Cambodia and Vietnam War era, I learned very early that the health care options available were acupuncture, Chinese herbs, and your own immune systems. There were no Western medicines available or any kind of hospitals or clinics. Imagine what it would be like if you have a broken tooth and you have to go to the dentist. You will be looking at dentists with a pair of pliers and no anesthesia in some dingy dark office in some illegal back alleyway. That’s the kind of health care we had. Fortunately, my mother was an acupuncturist and my dad a librarian, so they were able to keep us healthy with what you would consider alternative health knowledge.