Remember when you were little and people would ask you what you wanted to be when you grew up? We all wanted to be doctors or astronauts, didn’t we? Being around the medical team from ICHF makes me want to give the next 8 years of my life to medical school, I admit it.
If you’re in the middle of med school already, don’t give up. It’s going to be worth it.
If you don’t believe me, come with us to the next Remedy.
What I’m learning more and more from this team isn’t just the importance of people wanting to become doctors when they grow up, but the importance of people wanting to grow up to teach and inspire others to become doctors.
If one person becomes a doctor or a nurse, it’s a great thing. But if that one nurse or doctor trains others to become like them, and then they turn around and train more…who makes the greater impact?
This is one of the most beautiful pieces of Remedy. Teaching.
Dr. Bob Arnold is a pediatric cardiologist. He’s traveled the world training and instructing others on the best practices of cardiology. His first night here a man came up to him saying that he was one of his students that he taught when he was in Baghdad in the 1990’s. Now that student is helping complete Iraq’s newest cardiac center for children here in Southern Iraq.
Today I spent time shadowing Dr. Arnold as he took echos and continued teaching throughout the process. I spent a few moments with one of his new students, a young Arab doctor and aspiring cardiologist, Dr. Gaither, pictured below. Dr. Gaither went on about the value of what he’s learned already even just after the first few hours. Then he started to talk about the importance of working with other countries. “Each country needs to work together”, he said, “we all have so much to learn from each other.”
That’s it, isn’t it? We all have so much to learn from each other. People teaching one other. Nations teaching nations.
These two weeks of Remedy are profoundly shaping the lives of everybody involved. I guess it all started with someone, long ago, who wanted to teach someone else how to be a doctor.
Remedy Missions are international pediatric heart surgery teams that we bring to Iraq to perform lifesaving heart surgeries and develop the infrastructure for the future. This Remedy Mission is made possible by the Vice President of Iraq, Living Light International, and the International Children’s Heart Foundation. If you’re on Twitter this week be sure to use the #RemedyMission hashtag to describe all the good news coming out of Iraq via @preemptivelove and @babyheart_org. If you’re on Facebook, “Share” this story with the button below.
