(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.
As I sit here back at home in Vancouver, Canada reflecting on (and recovering from) my just concluded, wonderfully intense trip to Ghana and Ethiopia, in chronological order I am going to try to give a sense of the fullness of the many experiences. For me there were two equally important elements to the trip: the chance to spend some quality personal time back with Tesfaye, his sister Fanteye, and other members of my Ethiopian family; and, the philanthropic "business" purposes of the trip, including visiting Dr Oheneba Boachie-Adjie and his FOCOS Orthopaedic Hospital in Ghana, launching the long-planned research into Dr. Rick Hodes' extensive collection of bad spine cases to see if there are ascertainable reasons for it, exploring opportunities to build more sophisticated spine surgery capacity in Ethiopia,reviewing the various current JDC programs in Ethiopia and deciding on strategies going forward, and touching base on the UBC Branch for International Surgery partnership with Gondar University Hospital relating to improving the trauma care systems and procedures.
Forgetting about the fiasco with my personal luggage not showing up for 5 days, after our long flight to Ghana through London our first couple of days passing through Ghana represented a visit to a new country for me and a very enlightening visit with Dr. Boachie and at his private Focos spine hospital that he built. Prof. B is a world renowned spine surgeon recently "retired" from the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York; though he may have retired from there, he is far from retired. Dr. B now is fully entrenched in a high pressure spine deformity surgery treatment program at his hospital in Ghana, taking on a steady stream of very complex spine deformities, many of them coming from the extraordinary relationship between him and Dr. Rick Hodes established almost 10 years ago. Together these two are "saving the world one life at a time" -- Dr. Rick is finding, without advertising, a seemingly endless number of severe spine deformity cases and Dr. Boachie operates on them after prioritizing them in terms of severity and urgency based on a number of factors. What a beautiful partnership between this devout Christian and observant Jew -- an example of what can be accomplished if people of different beliefs set aside their differences and join forces for the greater good .
