AlisonH
The local paper had a story Friday about Enoch Choi, a physician who wanted to help out in Haiti, who wanted to bring a medical team as well as himself there, but, he said, the major relief organizations wanted a month’s commitment and most doctors and nurses he knew just couldn’t take that much time off.
So he worked out on his own a way to get rotating teams of his local colleagues in and out for a week each month. His church, Abundant Life Christian, helped with the logistics as he was setting things up; even the local schoolchildren helped with the fundraising.
He was in the first group to go. They’re back now, and were giving a discussion on their experiences the other night. They described:
The group of patients on IVs, very ill, who surprised their caregivers when they broke out into song: a hymn, “How Great Is Thy Faithfulness.”
The baby near death of dehydration and pneumonia, who, given care, one doctor said, “It was like watching a flower bloom in time-lapse photography.” What was left unsaid was the unfathomable gift of being allowed to know they had saved a life–which, one by one, happened many times over.
The young mother, an amputee crushed in spirit, for whom they were able to reframe her situation: she had rushed back into a building to save her two-year-old. One doctor said, “I told her she was a hero for rescuing her child; her life was made in that moment: that she would forever be a hero. I was able to help her interpret that.”
I love that. The ability to see the power in our stories helps make us whole, and the gift of that physician seeing the whole picture, and giving it to that mother, changed everything.  For her and him both.
The sum of their thoughts was, Haiti is a place of hope, and that hope will save them in the end.
When I was a patient last year and very ill, I had a kind, calm doctor taking part in my care, the kind of man where you instinctively know you’re in good and caring hands and that, no matter how hard it is right now, you’re going to come out of this okay.
And his name was Enoch Choi.
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Wonderful doctors are caring, giving people, who give no matter what part of their life overlaps with yours, whether it’s socially, medically, spiritually… I’m so glad you had this wonderful man caring for you, and I’m so glad the people in Haiti had him as well.
Comment by Serena Rother 03.22.10 @ 8:10 pmEnoch Choi…what a wonderful man to give so much of himself and to find a way of helping the people of Haiti. You were very fortunate to have this man take care of you. God had a purpose.
Comment by Joansie 03.23.10 @ 4:51 amNo surprise there. Great doctors are almost always great people too.
Comment by Channon 03.23.10 @ 6:24 amThank God for great doctors.
Comment by Sherry in Idaho 03.23.10 @ 6:32 amThank you for sharing that story. I think we all need to have our situations “reframed” and brought into prospective for us.
Comment by Colette 03.23.10 @ 7:59 amWe read and hear so much about what is wrong in the world that it is a blessing to hear about something that is RIGHT! Your Doctor Choi is a marvelous example of how good people can be. May there be more such people in the world!
I guess a bit of humor is appropriate —
Sometimes, we just need to remember what the rules of life really are: You only need two tools – WD-40 and Duct Tape. If it doesn’t move and should, use the WD-40. If it shouldn’t move and does, use the duct tape.
Comment by Don Meyer 03.23.10 @ 9:45 amSmall and big, kind gestures find an echo in the heart, don’t they?
It is amazing to me, still, how much the human spirit can endure and give.
Comment by Suzanne in Montreal 03.23.10 @ 10:52 amGreat Story Alison. I’m stealing that phrase Don. LOVE IT!
Comment by Tiny Tyrant 03.23.10 @ 10:52 amWhat joy you share with us to remind us that there are people like Dr. Choi in the world. thank you!
Comment by twinsetellen 03.23.10 @ 5:18 pmLovely story. Dr. Choi is a true healer in every sense of the word.
Comment by Madeline 03.23.10 @ 7:36 pmI was so moved to read this on your blog today. It’s a depressing world sometimes, but reading about inspirational people such as Dr. Choi really remind us that life is still good so long as their are a few caring people such as he and the other good nurses and doctors who devote themselves to others in need.
Comment by Chelle 03.24.10 @ 11:59 amI get tired easily, to put it mildly. When I’m rested, I love to go out with friends. Most people don’t understand the fatigue. And sometimes they point out to me things I’ve left undone, as though I didn’t know or don’t want to do them. They’d like to think that I’m less impaired than I am.
It can get me down a bit. Then I think of what the wonderful Dr. A. has told me: the things that have happened to me would have flattened most people. Oh. Yes. Think of what I can do, not what I can’t. Thank you Dr. A!
Thanks for mentioning how much help this can be to a patient, Alison.
Comment by RobinM 03.25.10 @ 9:30 amLeave a comment
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