Lottery of Life

I went to a recruitment session for Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) the other night and I came away deeply impressed with the organization and its mission. I have been donating a few shekels to them for the last few years along with some other organizations that I feel share my personal goal of working towards quality health care access and health equity for ALL homo sapiens sapiens on this planet (yep, I’m an idealistic dreamer at heart). Why, you may ask, am I dedicating my life towards this lofty and perhaps unrealistic goal? Quite simply, I wouldn’t be here today if I didn’t have access to the quality of health care available to me on April 16, 1975 in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. I was born two months premature and very underweight, with underdeveloped lungs, and a hip out of place. I spent the next two years in a hip brace and the next 15 years fighting childhood asthma and multiple episodes of bronchitis and pneumonia, with frequent emergency room visits. Not fun. Lucky for me, I outgrew all of this bad health karma, but it left a stark and lasting impression. As I grew older and worked in hospitals and clinics in the USA and abroad, the more aware I became of the fragility of life, especially during infancy and childhood. I had won the lottery of life 32 years ago. All of this was rolling through my head the other night while I was at the MSF session and talking to some of the volunteers about their experiences in Afghanistan, Sudan, Angola, South Africa, Uganda, and Liberia. The stories they told me were mind blowing and emotionally numbing. They literally went where no one else would or could in some of the worst human disasters that you can imagine (e.g. Darfur). I was really humbled by some of these idealistic but pragmatic folks and I hope one day, when I have the time and financial resources, that I can volunteer for at least one mission with MSF.