Dr.Rick Hodes gives remarkable Commencement Address to 2013 Brandeis graduating class

My friend and hero Dr. Rick Hodes received an honourary degree and gave the commencement address on May 19th at Brandeis University. Here is a link to the words and video of his uniquely inspiring address:http://www.brandeis.edu/now/2013/may/commencement/hodes 

In his wide-ranging remarks you will see Rick also makes reference to Tesfaye and his sister Fanteye.

Happy "(Re)Birthday" Tesfaye!

Tesfaye with me and his sister Fanteye
Dec. 2012

It was four years ago yesterday that Tesfaye had his 14 hour life-changing spine surgery performed at VGH by Dr. Marcel Dvorak and his superb spine unit team:2009/06/12tesfayes-journey-from-addis-to vancouver-to-surgery  How the years fly by!

I will never forget the gamut of emotions I went through that long day until getting word that it was over and successful, and then seeing him lying on his back in recovery:2009/06/12 surgery-completefirst-day-of-recovery.html

Though it was a very difficult month of dealing with post-operative complications in the hospital, the ensuing story of his re-birth over the last four years has been remarkable and has touched and transformed my family and the lives of his family and friends in so many ways.

Here is a copy of an email note received from Tesfaye yesterday:

"Hello  My dears,

how are you so much?? and how is your feeling Abba? I wish you are in

full of health and happy with your work!!. Mom how is life and

everything?

The days are running fast  I couldn't believe it,Today is the  day of

4th year that I have reborn  my miracle life in VGH, because of you.

June 12th. :D I think about you and

Love you for ever!!

HUMANITY WINS EVERYTHING!"

Reflecting on Life in the aftermath of the Connecticut tragedy(from Ethiopia Dec. 2012)

(Note: I have just returned from a tiring but enjoyable and productive trip to Ethiopia and am committed to a long overdue updating of this blog, before the end of 2012.  For now I am posting some initial thoughts I was moved to put down on paper while in Ethiopia.)

Reflections on Life from Ethiopia - by Gary Segal   Dec.16, 2012

A World of Extremes -- from Unfathomable Violence to an Extraordinary Life of Kindness

It is impossible to even begin to understand what possesses a person to carry out the tragic massacre that occurred in Connecticut.  How can anyone possibly do that, especially to so many innocent young children?  What creates such callous acts of heartlessness?

In the face of events like this, I feel so fortunate to be in Ethiopia spending time with my friend and hero, Dr. Rick Hodes, over the past 10 days.  If you ever want your faith in the goodness of people to be restored, there is nothing better than a first-hand glimpse into the life of devotion Rick has led here in Ethiopia for some 24 years.  His life story is well chronicled, from his unique extended Ethiopian family of 5 adopted and 18 or so foster children, to his remarkable medical career devoted to saving the world one life at a time (see www.bringbackhope.com). 

I have had the privilege of accompanying Dr. Rick on his patient visits and examinations on a number of occasions, including 3 days on this trip. Rick is dealing with some of the most sick and destitute people in the world, but I find the experience interesting, at times extremely tough emotionally, but in the end nourishing for the soul. I must say that each time I accompany Rick I always admire his bedside manner and sheer humanity; doctors all over could learn a lot from Rick in this area of patient care.

Over the course of those 3 days of accompanying Rick to Mother Teresa Mission, Cure Hospital and Yekatit 12 Hospital, Rick saw a wide variety of patients of all ages suffering from a myriad of health issues, including the kind of severe spine and heart conditions he is accustomed to, and a few other conditions he is not.  Dr. Rick sees cases repeatedly that most Western doctors may never come across even once in a lifetime. The first day, Saturday Dec. 8th, was a pretty typical day.  Dr. Robert Taylor, general surgery, and Dr. Brian Westerberg, ENT, from UBC Branch for International Surgery also came along for the rounds; in addition to finding the rounds with Rick an insightful introduction to the situation in Ethiopia, they also had some useful input into a few cases falling within their areas of expertise.  Also normally assisting Rick are Dr. Beficata, an Ethiopian doctor who has returned to Ethiopia after some time in the USA, general assistant Berhanu, long-time nurse Sister Tana, and current one year American volunteer and aspiring medical student Menachem.

First stop Mother Teresa children's wing, where we saw a bunch of very cute young children and babies.  When visiting here and also the schools in the countryside, coming from North America you really notice how the children naturally reach out to touch you or hold your hand to feel the warmth of human contact; Ethiopians are much more tactile by nature than us North Americans. We first looked at a couple of infants with cleft lips and palates; the cleft palates involve more complicated surgery and left untreated leave the child exposed to infections that may enter the brain. Rick is in communication with visiting surgical teams of various disciplines that come from all over the world from time to time to perform surgeries, so in due course these children should get surgery as well.  Another adorable young boy around 4 years old, all hunched over with a severe TB spine, will be sent by Rick to Ghana for surgery by Dr. Boachie when his paperwork to get a passport is in order (when I returned with Rick to Mother Teresa a week later his passport had indeed been issued).  After the children's wing we went across the way to the women’s section and saw a woman with a thyroid tumor and a mass growing on her face that was causing her eye to protrude.  Very difficult If not impossible case to operate on; unfortunately this could be one of those cases without a solution.

Gary Segal, Dr. Hodes, Dr. Westerberg and Dr. Taylor

Next stop Cure Hospital.  This was a long, busy afternoon of numerous patient assessments without break for lunch.  The patients seen ran the gamut of conditions from unimaginably twisted spines, serious heart conditions, palates, and wasting neurological disorders, to tiny children with a combination of conditions further complicated by mental developmental issues.  Eking out a reasonable existence in Ethiopia is difficult enough for these people without these major health challenges, so I really pray that Rick can do his usual magic and come up with solutions for all of them.

But, of course, that is not possible.  Sadly, not all the cases have an apparent solution; though Rick may be considered a "Saint" or "Tzadik", he is not God.  On this particular afternoon at Cure there were three cases of infants or toddlers where Rick could not do anything to help.  In those situations Rick tries to gently break the devastating news to the mother or father accompanying the child, making a point of telling them he can see  they are a very good parent who loves and cares for their child very much, but that he is sorry there is nothing he can do to help.

One particularly sad case was that of an obviously concerned and caring father who brought in his sweet 2 year old girl; she had a misshapen elongated skull, protruding eyes, had gone blind in the last 5 months, and had cleft palate.  After much analysis and rumination, Rick gently explained that the man is a very good and caring father and should be proud of that, but that Rick cannot help; the father broke down in tears while telling Rick that he was his last hope. I couldn't help but cry then, as I do now writing this.  Dr. Taylor said to me at the time, how many times a day can you have your heart broken and still go on?  Somehow, Rick manages to deal with this every day, for over two decades now.

gift/thank you note from Firehiwot

Gary,Firehiwot,Menachem,Makbel

The many people that Rick is able to help are filled with gratitude, and often want to give back by volunteering to help Rick with his patients.  It is nice to see, and I know the gesture means a lot to Rick  A young man named Makbel helping out this day and volunteering on an ongoing basis is a spine patient of Rick's that had surgery earlier this year.  Also on this particular day at Cure, a young woman named Firehiwot came to the clinic to demonstrate her translation skills, as she wants to volunteer as a translator.  She was a polio spine case that had successful surgery in Ghana through Rick and is currently studying social work and speaks good English. She brought with her a lovely figurine of a traditional Ethiopian woman and wrote a lovely thank you note to go with it.  It is comforting to know that, more often than not, acts of kindness beget other acts of kindness.

What creates a mass murderer leaving death and destruction on one hand, and a rare, extraordinarily altruistic and caring humanitarian like Dr. Rick Hodes who gives hope and heals lives on the other hand?  God only knows. Connecticut tragedy notwithstanding, as Dr. Boachie commented after his first visit to Mother Teresa Mission in Addis a couple of weeks ago, there are a lot of very good people in this world. In moments like these we must take solace in that. 

April 4th, 2012 Evening to Bring Back Hope - honouring the extraordinary work of Dr.Rick Hodes

We reached Tesfaye by phone a few nights ago.  He is as happy and upbeat as always; he is off school for the next couple of weeks.  We are very excited, as is Tesfaye, that he is coming to Vancouver to join in the upcoming April 4th very special fundraising event dedicated to the extraordinary work of Dr. Rick Hodes. An Evening to Bring Back Hope represents a diverse community of British Columbia’s most engaged citizens working together to reach out to join Dr. Hodes’ mission of universal good. This event will motivate and inspire each of us to do more to help our fellow people.

Click on this www.bringbackhope.com link to learn more about this event and the inspiration behind it, and how you can help support Rick's humanitarian work through ticket purchases, donations and sponsorships.

The links below (also found on the "bringbackhope" website) take you to news highlights from Dr. Rick's recent Jan. 2012 visit .

• Global TV news story on Dr. Hodes and Bring Back Hope

   (a picture is worth a thousand words)
  The Province: Doctor takes on horrors of Ethiopia's worst off

  Vancouver Sun: Miracles do happen - but they cost money

  Joy Metcalfe - CKNW AM 980

  Fanny Kiefer interview with Dr. Rick Hodes Jan. 24^th, 2012 (total 20:15)

  CBC One with Rick Cluff on Air Live January 23, 2012

Happy Birthday and Second Anniversary of Vancouver Arrival Tesfaye!

May 20, 2011: REMINISCING - A BIRTHDAY AND ANNIVERSARY FOR TESFAYE

It was two years ago on his birthday, on May 20, 2009 that Tesfaye finally arrived in Vancouver to start a new chapter in his life.  Finally, his difficult 12 year quest for life-changing corrective spine surgery and my own year long "roller coaster" ride in trying to get it done for him here in Vancouver had become a reality, and a new exciting and emotional shared journey for Tesfaye and my family was about to begin. Reflecting back, following is a link to the beginning entries of my blog recounting what happened the first couple of days after his arrival: .http://tesfayesjourney.blogspot.com/2009/06/life-withtesfaye-during-his-first-23.html . I did not fulfill my ambition of covering all of the first 23 days of activities before the day of surgery - maybe some day for my own edification I will fill it in. In summary, it was filled with tens of hours of pre-op hospital testing and education, Vancouver sight seeing, meeting local Ethiopians, and many good meals trying to fatten Tesfaye up for his upcoming surgery.

I was able to reach Tesfaye in Addis and wish him a Happy Birthday.  As usual, he was upbeat, positive and thankful. He is finishing his Grade 7 school year in a month and then is taking a summer course.  His older brother Semenye came down from the village last week and stayed with him for a few days. Semenye came to escort one of his wife's brothers Wendim who is quite ill and was told by the doctors in the nearest cities to his village to make the trip to the capital Addis to seek medical help. It appears that he has a chronic kidney illness and at this time is getting some help at the Mother Theresa Mission. Tesfaye tells me that Wendim is in Grade 10 and a very good student, ranking first of second out of around 60 students, but he is very sick. As Tesfaye said in an email, " I wish to him, may God give a treatment".

A New Year begins / reflections back/Dr. Rick visits Vancouver and Denver

Our Tesfaye - loved and missed by my family. We have remained in regular contact with Tesfaye by email and occasional telephone call. He is doing well and working hard at school. He remains the most positive and happy individual I know, and so thankful for the change his spine surgery has brought to his outlook on life. I cannot stop thinking back fondly to my amazing experience last Feb./March going with him to his village in Gojaam for his first post-surgery family reunion. http://tesfayesjourney.blogspot.com/2010/03/tesfayes-family-reunion-part-ii-village.html


What a great way to start 2011 - inspired again by Dr. Rick Hodes visit to Vancouver the weekend of Jan. 7-9 2011:

Jan.7  After picking him up Friday morning the 7th and a brief stop at our home to freshen up, we went to our noon gathering at VGH for a round (actually square) table discussion with UBC medical faculty interested in global health initiatives. Rick's presentation stimulated a number of discussions about his work and challenges they all have experienced dealing with medical programs in developing countries. A couple of the big issues were developing local sustainability and cooperation between NGO's. I believe some ongoing relationship/assistance between the doctors/UBC medical faculty and Rick's Ethiopian medical programmes may evolve from this session.
   I then took Rick for an interview with the Jewish Independent newspaper, which subsequently published on January 14/11 a very nicely written article by Basya Laye   http://www.jewishindependent.ca/cover/index.html#two  about Rick being an inspiring example of the Jewish concept of "Tikun Olam" - repairing the world one soul at a time.
   With barely a moment to rest, we then went to the Friday night Shabbat Scholars Dinner featuring Rick as the main speaker. After dinner the crowd of close to 200 gathered in the sanctuary where I had the honour and always great pleasure of introducing my hero Rick and his inspiring work to the large crowd of people, most of whom had never met or heard Rick before. It being the Sabbath, without the benefit of audio/visual aid, Rick kept the crowd captivated and disarmed with his great sense of humour for close to an hour, including answering a number of questions at the end.
Jan.8/9  Saturday allowed Rick to rest at our house and catch up on a few things. Sunday we had a planning session with the Seattle JDC official Michael Novick to talk about future administrative and fundraising support for Rick's activites, followed by a late afternoon presentation to a small group of invited guests to my house who were mostly familiar with Tesfaye's story and were interested in meeting Rick with a view to possibly supporting his initiatives. In fact,as expected, all who attended were inspired and touched by his selfless humanitarian work, and I am pleased by the generous donations that flowed from that session.           
    Monday morning at 4:30 am I took this tireless hero, Rick, to the airport for his flight to San Diego to do more fundraising and medical presentations. I have seen Rick's hectic pace of life and work on numerous occasions in Ethiopia, and at my house and over the course of the weekend it did not slow up; he does not sleep very much, hence dozes off here, there and anywhere when there are a few minutes that might allow it.

Next Report: Attending Denver's Dinner of Unconditional Love honouring Rick