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girlactionfigure · 3 years

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In college, he was known as “Number 70”, playing football with Robert F. Kennedy.

He went on to Harvard Medical School and earned acclaim for his work in psychiatry, and became the first African-American full professor at Massachusetts General Hospital.

A peak in Antarctica is named after him. He was a commander in the U.S. Navy, and he was also an advisor for NASA.

And though mostly forgotten for his work, he was also one of the guiding lights for a little television program which a survey found that 95% of all American preschoolers had watched by the time they were three years old.

Start guessing.

In 2008, it was estimated that 77 million Americans had watched the series as children.

Still guessing?

It’s a place where we come and play and everything's A-OK.

The show was set in a fictional neighborhood, on a particular street . . . "where the air is sweet."

Directions aren’t needed, if you know how to get to . . . Sesame Street.

His name was Chester Pierce, he was the senior advisor for the most widely viewed children's program in the world, teaching generations of children not only how to count, but to tell right from wrong, to appreciate their uniqueness, and to be kind to others.

Yup, you and many others probably didn’t know that Sesame Street was partly brought to you by a former football player named Chester Pierce and the number 70 [that was his football jersey number].

~~~~~

In introducing Black History Month for 2021, journalist Joy Reid commented that “the place we got the most affirmation as Black kids was Sesame Street.”

Not many people know that “‘Sesame Street’ has been rooted in African-American culture, more specifically the historically black community of Harlem,” according to the Smithsonian. “The New York City neighborhood played such an outsized role in the development of the program—from set design to casting and marketing.”

“Sesame Street was originally conceived as a show that would bring remedial education into the homes of disadvantaged kids. But Chester Pierce recognized the show’s potential and pushed for it to include a multi-ethnic ‘neighborhood’ with people of color as role models,” according to writer David Beard. “Amid the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and the riots spurred by racial inequity, this vision seemed especially crucial.”

Pierce, a psychiatrist and Harvard Medical School professor, was the founding president of the Black Psychiatrists of America.

The organization “had been discussing . . . their lack of representation within the key bodies of American psychiatry,” according to Anne Harrington, the Franklin L. Ford Professor of the history of science and medicine at Harvard University. Pierce “was most concerned about the pernicious influence of one institution in particular: television.”

“It was Pierce who first coined the now widely used term microaggression, in the course of a study in the 1970s that exposed the persistent presence of stigmatizing representations of black people in television commercials.”

Sesame Street creator Joan Ganz Cooney, who produced a documentary on the Harlem pre-school program that would become Head Start, became “absolutely involved intellectually and spiritually with the Civil Rights Movement and with the educational deficit that poverty created,” according to Harrington.

Pierce agreed to serve as a senior advisor on the new show, working closely with Cooney, one of its two creators (the other was the psychologist Lloyd Morrisett).

“He became personally involved in helping to design a new kind of television show targeted at preschool children,” according to Harrington.

Pierce was “instrumental to the show’s early development and vision,” according to Beard.

This is part of a continuing series on the Peace Page for Black History Month.

Pierce “helped design what he called the show’s ‘hidden curriculum’ to build up the self-worth of black children through the presentation of positive black images,” according to Bryan Greene of Smithsonian Magazine. “Pierce also insisted the show present an integrated, harmonious community to challenge the marginalization of African-Americans that children routinely saw on television and elsewhere in society.”

“It was not only the most imaginative educational show for preschoolers ever designed: it was also, quite deliberately, populated with the most racially diverse cast that public television had ever seen,” wrote Harrington. “All the multi-ethnic characters— adults, children and puppets — lived, worked, and played together on a street in an inner-city neighborhood, similar (if in an idealized way) to the streets in which many minority children were growing up.”

“Radical for its time, Sesame Street presented an integrated society where everyone was treated with respect,” according to Beard. “People of color, such as Gordon, the show’s teacher, and his wife, Susan, were authority figures. That reinforcing message was as important as learning the alphabet and numbers.”

It was deemed so “radical” during its time that “in May 1970, a state commission in Mississippi voted to not air the show on the state’s newly launched public TV network: the people of Mississippi, said some legislators, were not yet ‘ready’ to see a show with such an interracial cast,” according to Harrington.

An anonymous editorial for the Delta Democrat-Times stated that the show had ”one fatal defect, as measured by Mississippi’s political leadership. Sesame Street is integrated. Some of its leading cast members are black, including the man who does much of the overt ‘teaching.’ The neighborhood of the ‘street’ is a mixed one. And all that, of course, goes against the Mississippi grain.”

The state commission would eventually be forced to reverse its decision after its secret vote made national news.

~~~~~

Chester Middlebrook Pierce was born on March 4, 1927 in Glen Cove, New York.

He was the first black to be chosen as senior class president at Glen Cove High, according to Ezra E.H. Griffith, author of “Race and Excellence: My Dialogue with Chester Pierce”. Pierce chose Harvard because the school principal told him that he might not be accepted there.

Pierce had “fought racism his entire life,” according to Beard.

“In 1947, he was the first African-American to play on an integrated college football team south of the Mason Dixon line,” according to Elissa Ely of WBUR. “That University of Virginia game was racially historic, but the Harvard tackle wasn’t allowed to sleep in the same hotel as his teammates.”

This was “only months after Jackie Robinson famously brought down baseball’s color barrier,” according to writer Jeff Miller.

Pierce’s team jersey was the number 70.

He went on to Harvard Medical School and earned great acclaim for his work in psychiatry. He was the first African-American full professor at Massachusetts General Hospital, and was past-president of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and the American Orthopsychiatric Association.

Pierce “specialized in how people react to extreme environments and racial relations,” according to writer Jeff Miller. “That’s why a peak in Antarctica is named for him.”

It was called “Pierce Peak.”

He was in Antarctica studying soldiers in extreme environments,” according to David Henderson, an associate of Pierce. “I think he spent six months in darkness with them. He’s got a mountain named after him in Antarctica. Like, how do you find people like, how do you do that? I dunno.”

“Traveling the world, he [also] helped African countries coordinate treatment for mental illness in the absence of resources, training and policy,” according to Ely. “That led to founding Harvard’s Global Psychiatry program. His thinking about race and resilience was so broad and deep, he became a professor at Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health and the Harvard Graduate School of Education.”

“He [also] participated in a civil rights rally alongside actor Charlton Heston,” wrote Miller.

He spent most of his time working with organizations that help to promote human rights, conservation, and youth education.

“Dr. Pierce wasn’t a big researcher; he was a big thinker -- writing by pen until midnight, pausing to catch a TV movie, then up early the next morning for calisthenics and a glass of milk,” wrote Ely.

Aside from being a consultant for the Children's Television Network, he also advised the Surgeon General of the U.S. Air Force, the US Arctic Research Commission, the Peace Corps, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. He was also the National Chairperson of the Child Development Associate Consortium.

~~~~~

Chester Pierce’s vision “had always been at the heart of ‘Sesame Street,” wrote Harrington.

“Early childhood specialists,” he reflected in 1972, “have a staggering responsibility … in producing planetary citizens whose geographic and intellectual provinces are as limitless as their all-embracing humanity.”

“Pierce died in 2016, but his spirit of inclusion lives on in the most successful children’s show of all time,” wrote Beard.

"A place where we can all meet" . . . "where all the doors are open wide."

And, that, boys and girls, is how a former football player, # 70, got to a place where the “air is sweet” . . . a place called “Sesame Street”.

~ jsr

“. . . sweeping the clouds away”

Image courtesy of Perspectives of Change. Artist: Stephen Coit

The Jon S. Randal Peace Page

#Black History Month

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pinkvhs · 4 years

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this has been a long time coming

ive detached from jack / dont watch jack anymore. i’ve poured so much into this story that involved the egos that i just....can’t let it go. so, im making ocs for the story instead.

inspired by @lilakennedy . . . here is some info about my boys

Marvin the Magnificent➜ Marvin Lir MacKenna

age: 27- from the 1920s

Brown wavy hair that goes to past his ears a bit

Blue eyes

Height: 5′7″

irish & welsh ( mother from wales father from ireland )

an illusionist / performer

Stage performance & regular attitude are a complete 180. Very bold on stage and confident but once he is off he is more reserved and calm

Best friends with Daniel

Knew Daniel for years, since they were around 10 years old. Extremely close bond.

Doesn’t believe in spirits but is very cautious / superstitious

Gets powers whenever he and Daniel accidentally summon Phonus at Daniel’s Birthday/Halloween party. When it was just the two of them alone.

He tries to attack Phonus since the monster killed Daniel

but once he made contact with the demon, he was immediately teleported into our timeline. He took some of Phonus’s powers as a result

He ends up getting burn marks on his arms/hands and face due to trying to physically fight Phonus when he was furious

He has powers now, some he doesn’t know he can do yet. But his powers are: ✪= Not used often. ✦= strongest. ✧=weakest

✦ Empathic Element Manipulation ✦✪Fire Manipulation, ✦✪Necromancy, ✦Telekinesis,✦Kinetic Charging

✧✪Electricity Manipulation, ✦Magical Wall Generation, ✦Teleportation, ✧Intangibility, ✧Healing Hands, ✦✪Naturakinetic Combat

Riley finds him and helps him on his feet to find a place to stay

The two of them become close friends eventually, it takes a long time for Marv to warm up to people in this strange new environment- still tortured by that night.

He blames himself for Daniels death every day.

With his new unknown powers, he tries to go back in time to stop all this from happening.

He opens up about his powers to Riley and the truth.

Riley is beyond amazed that powers and magic exist, he tries to help Marv with his powers.

He ends up needing to find a sort of job to stay at his home, so he tries the one thing he loved- entertaining people. With his magic, he dumbfounds audiences.

However, once things were just looking up, his fire magic (the strongest) goes wrong.

He ends up catching a stage set on fire, causing injuries to hundreds.

He panics. Riley tries to calm him down. But he can’t take it, he is convinced that he is destined to cause harm with these powers.

He vanishes to a place by the sea and isolates himself, causing people to believe he died in the fire accident.

He spends his time trying to prefect time travel and is consumed by isolation. though, he does attract wild life to him. they are very at ease with him

Refuses to use his fire magic

One day, he comes across Viktor’s body on the shore. He takes him in quickly to his small home that he protected in case Phonus ever finds him.

He revives Viktor to come to. The stranger is a total mess and he tries to heal the man, but Viktor grabs him on reflex. So the man patches himself up

The two live together for a few months as the injuries heal up

Viktor convinces him to visit Riley again, so he does.

He teleports there and leaves a note stating that he is alive. He can’t bring himself to see Riley face to face

In the end, he tries to fight off Phonus. He fails miserably

He returns to his home, having Riley there with him. He gives Riley his powers because he doesn’t want to die and these powers go back to Phonus.

He trusts Riley with his life

Once Riley is given the powers, he passes away.

When his body is all alone peacefully at rest in the home, without any magic to protect it, Phonus finds the body

But no magic

The demon still takes the body. Using it to wake him up again and look into his mind to find out where the powers have gone

He remains a soul bounded victim to Phonus and reunites with Daniel

Both under Phonus’s control

Chase Brody➜ Noah Oliver Dodge

age: 29 - from our timeline

messy brown hair thats dyed blonde at the tips of it

brown eyes

Height: 5′9″

American

Dropped out of university and works part time at a local electronics store

loves to break things and try to fix them up again and make it totally new!

has a passion for computers and likes to make his own computer

he also loves film and had dreams of making a film

a disaster cook but god help him he tries

Father of 2 girls

childish and fun loving

reckless at times

loves nature and going on walks / hikes

met his wife in high school (been together since they were 16)

they go to the same university, his wife studying to be a nurse

at 18 he accidentally gets her pregnant and her parents arent the happiest about it

they get married at 19

he becomes a stay at home dad and drops out to take care of their baby till she finishes nursing

they end up having another child once they get a small apartment together

his daughter is friends with Viktors daughter and thats how the two families meet

His wife actually works with Viktor and didn’t know at the time

his wife divorces him because, even though she does love him, she can’t keep working like this just to get by. she needs security and they dont have it.

he is allowed to see his kids still but at the time it was very painful for him

he lives alone in that apartment, often calling Viktor to talk and invite him over so he doesn’t do shit he regrets

he talks about how Viktor is so lucky to have such a wonderful life and wishes he could have that (since he doesn’t know the truth)

Viktor and Noah become very close and often have their kids over at each others houses

he hears news that Viktor is missing and becomes a mess. he is alone and doesnt know what to do.

he tries to make it known that he is missing online, making posts and videos as much as he can to get peoples attention

he visits the Valentin house hold and offers his wife any help thats needed, despite knowing all the turmoil they went though. he cares about the kids and doesn’t want them to worry.

Henrik Von Schneeplestein➜ Viktor Alexis Valentin

age: 32 -from our timeline

short grey hair

extremely pale blue eyes

pale, almost sickly skin

Height: 6′2″

German

Doctor that specializes in internal medicine (meaning he focuses on helping adults) but also is a surgeon

Father of 3 girls

loves to bake!

a hopeless romantic actually

he is very cold and standoff ish but once he loves you, he LOVES you

blunt to a fault still though

cares about people. more so than his own well being

extremely loyal

met his wife in university. he took an anatomy art class

his wife helped him improve his drawing skills and the two became close

he fell for her very hard

they get married and live in a house that they saved up for (with extra help from both of their parents)

once settled, they have their children

his wife is a biology teacher with a minor in art teaching!

he takes family trips whenever he can to the beach! his kids love the ocean!

he comes home one day to find his wife cheated on him- he suspected this for a while now. he found a shirt underneath the bed, thinking it was just a gift for later down the road for christmas or something. he went to fix it when a piece of paper fell out of the pocket. her phone number

he never gets mad at her. he blames himself

he thinks he isnt perfect enough

he becomes extremely distant and cold, more than before. never knowing when to bring it up

the two of them grow apart but still live together

they make sure not to worry their children though, they dont want them to think its their fault.

he never brings up this information to Noah because he doesn’t want him to worry.

very envious of Noah though and wish he would smack him. Noah has a wife that loves him and he wishes that Noah could wake up and see that and fix his actions.

he does break down one night and tell Noah everything that happened

one day at the office, a man came in with a horrible neck injury.

he typically sees people who just need some medication or the worst injury being a bite from a dog, but even that wasn’t bad.

he rushes to take care of the stranger. once they were alone for a brief second, he gets trapped inside.

Phonus used Daniels body in order to get to the Doctor. He attacks and possesses Viktor.

Once Phonus is done using Viktor, he takes him to a cliff near the sea

He is snaps his neck and lets the body fall into the ocean.

Eventually, he washes up to shore where Marvin is

he stays with marvin for months while he heals up himself, he refuses to get any magic help

once he decides to leave marvin has a hard time letting go, he is worried viktor will fall victim to phonus again

he leaves to go home but once he reaches the steps, phonus finds him again.

Jackieboy Man➜ Riley Lee Young

age: 23 - from our timeline

very curly blonde hair

green eyes

skin that tans pretty easily

the most muscular out of the lads but isnt extremely buff

Height: 5′6″

American

Lives alone in a small apartment

a college student, unsure what to major in but possibly wants to be a vet

LOVES animals!

a vegetarian !

a pretty good cook actually!

has a heart of gold and sees the best in most people, though he isn’t stupid. he knows there are terrible people in the world that can’t change and deserve punches to the face

he watches pets and volunteers at animal shelters!

he also babysits Viktors kids to get some money

was kicked out of his home. Viktor found out about it and bought him a small apartment to live in. (he would of offered Riley to stay but he has issues at home that he doesn’t want to subject Riley to on the daily)

he is the girls big brother figure and he loves to pay pretend with them !

He meets Marvin and they eventually become friends

he helps Marvin gain back confidence, giving him a place to stay, and helps him actually feel . . at home in this timeline

when he finds out the truth that marvin is from the 1920s and has powers he cannot get over how cool it is! calling him a super hero and showing him comics that he has. he helps marvin try to get a better hold on the powers

he was around whenever the fire accident with marvins powers happen, he tries to calm marvin down but ends up alone. left to wonder what happened to his friend.

When he has to start university up again he has to let the Valentin family know that he can’t be around as much as before but will try to help out if needed

Viktor’s wife ends up calling Riley one day and begs him to come to the house as soon as he can for Viktor has been missing for days now

Riley puts up posters and gets the news out that Viktor is missing as much as he can around the city.

He still goes to university but spends a lot of time in the Valentin household. Visiting on holidays and the girls birthdays. Having no news of Viktor.

he later on gains marvins powers, his mainly being electricity and strength.

he is set on finding phonus and fixing things for marvins sake

Jameson Jackson➜ Daniel Edmund Thomas

age: 27 - from the 1920s

slicked short black hair

brown eyes

Height: 5′7″

British

a charming, bold, charismatic man

an actor and musician, exceptionally good on piano

very witty and clever

lives a rather extravagant life

very close friends with Marvin, trusts him with his life

on his 27th birthday on Halloween, he throws a party

he loves to mess around with guests and asks Marvin if they can have a a seance

they try it to entertain the guests, but nothing happens (to marvins relief)

the party continues on till its just marvin and him by the end of the night

they try again to contact from the beyond

they succeed

he comes face to face with the demon. an invisible hand causing him to kill himself. making Marvin watch

he becomes Antiphonus’s personal toy

his mind becomes warped and he loses all sense of who he used to be

he tries to fight back, but once he does, his tongue is cut out of his mouth. never to be able to voice for help again

his body now bound to Phonus becomes a personal pin cushion. being cut open and inspected to see how far humans have come with healing themselves. to see how far a human body can handle things

being trapped with phonus he starts to believe that Marvin caused his death. he believes everything phonus tells him and is set on killing marvin

he becomes very aware of realities all thanks to Phonus.

Antisepticeye➜ Antiphonus

age: unknown.

an immortal being / demon

seems to have been around for centuries

first appears invisible, then a shadow figure, to a pitch black faceless figure that takes on more of a human shape - till finally, he appears to look like Daniel

he is fascinated with humans, very curious and destructive

he takes Daniel in as a host. he rests inside of Daniel’s body till he is strong enough to mimic the physical outer appearance of him

when he possesses people becomes stronger. he doesnt have full control right away, it takes him a bit of time to warm up once again to how powerful he used to be.

he can see into his victims mind when possessing them, he knows all what Daniel knows / remembers. Daniels fame, fears, friendship. family, love- he knows it all.

He uses this to his advantage to keep Daniel around without fighting him back- using Marvin against him

he is after the powers that he accidentally gave to Marvin on impact

he travels to the dimensions he has access to and time lines in hopes to find Marvin, taking Daniel along with no choice

he lands in our dimension and timeline to sense that his powers are close by

He ends up sabotaging Marvin’s performance with fire magic in order to kill him or capture him but it fails- he looses sight of him

While he is searching through the streets, he over hears talk about the human body. He comes across Viktors practice building and opens the door a crack. He can sense so many souls and blood in that building and gets vastly curious. He notices people injured and ill, waiting for care. He hatches an idea.

He returns to Daniel and possesses his body. He takes Daniel to an alley way close to the building, away from the eyes of others. He grabs the sharpest thing he can find and plunges it deep into the side of his neck and carves it out slowly and rips it out.

He quickly makes Daniel reach the building and barges in, causing everyone to look on in horror. The nurses there rush to his aid as Phonus makes Daniel gasp and hold his neck to try to stop the bleeding. Nurses page for Viktor asap as they get Daniel to a stretcher and room fast. Viktor arrives shortly after and is fast to help Daniel. Daniel just looks at Viktor and tries to nod.

Once the nurses leave for a brief moment and its just him and Viktor, Phonus makes the door lock them inside.

Viktor goes to inject him with medication but Daniel reaches out and grabs Viktors arm. He say to Daniel that he knows needles are scary but you need this now, let go please. Daniel sits up and twists Viktors arm, causing Viktor to wince in pain while looking shocked.

He grabs Daniels hand with his free one and tries to pry it away, but can't. Daniel kicks him away, causing him to stumble and fall to the ground. He gets up from the bed. The lights inside the room begin to flicker faster and faster. Electronics in the room flickering on and off, radios and tv consumed with fast stations, fluctuating volumes, and static. Viktor gets to his feet and hears all this noise and sees this horror in front of him.

Phonus leaves Daniels body, causing Daniel's wound to disappear. Phonus stands in front of him.

He gets inside of Viktors mind to find all that he can about the human body and the amount of pain that it can handle.

He sees in Viktors mind a young man with curly blonde hair. And for a brief moment inside of Viktors mind, he sees Marvin

in the end he ends up taking Marvin captive but finds that the powers are gone.

he keeps marvin around because he sees too, that he gave that blonde boy his powers

so he is on the hunt for Riley

#.txt #smoke & mirrors #not yt related #long post #my ocs #THIS ISNT EVERY SINGLE DETAIL BUT GOD HELP ME THIS WAS HARD #I HAD TO HOLD BACK A L O T #BUT I NEEDED.....SOME OF THE IDEAS IN THERE LSDJFDAS

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veritygrahams · 6 years

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Without Proof

Accident and Emergency was busy as usual. Severus was a young and excited student doctor, and he thrived in the A&E he even ended up watching a surgery and learning as they intricately repaired the damage. He wasn't going to be a surgeon. He was interested in the cerebral side of medicine: curing people with the miracle of drugs, therapies, and treatments. He was always available when the higher-ups asked for him. He was gifted in the art of medicine, and this focus on his work healed a broken heart.

After being paged for an incoming case, he rushed to the ambulance bay; it's how someone could become the best, how they always got the best cases—being there first, taking every chance, and not walking but running! The ambulance door opened and that old wound was ripped open. His heart had been broken long ago—beyond repair— he found solace at university, in medical school and now in his studies and his work.

"I have a twenty-three-year-old male. His temperature is thirty-eight degrees, his blood pressure is eighty over ninety, he's conscious but not aware, and he's been on twenty-four percent oxygen for fifteen minutes. We administered pain relief, ten cc's codeine; his breathing has eased, but he's not in a good way," the paramedic recited, pushing the chart into Severus' hand.

The paramedics pulled the gurney from the ambulance. On the bed was a man with a mass of dark hair; his eyes had a far off look, and his breathing was ragged. If this was an improvement, Severus didn't want to know what he'd been like before. Climbing out after him was the woman who had broken his heart: Lily.

He would know her anywhere, and he watched as her auburn hair whipped around her beautiful porcelain face. He looked into her forest green eyes. Who could forget those devastatingly beautiful evergreen eyes? They were just like the last time he had seen them: swollen, puffy, and red. It pained him to watch as tears spilled over.

"How did he present?" Severus forced his eyes over to the paramedic—the one that could give him information he needed to make it all better for her.

"His breathing was short and erratic; he's very confused, persistently coughing up blood. He's running a fever—it's getting higher—and his wife has said he's vomited as well."

Severus nodded sharply, pushing the gurney through the A&E doors and parking it in an empty room. Severus moved around hurriedly, connecting the man to various monitors and barking instructions. He had always been good at taking charge. He checked the man's breathing; his face darkened, barely noticing her standing to one side, reading his face.

"He's going into respiratory depression; what medication has he had that wasn't on the chart?" Severus barked at the paramedic.

"We didn't check." The man was flummoxed. "He was in agony; we had to give him something."

"Lily?" His tone softened.

"I wrote it all down. He's been on a bunch of different over the counter stuff; nothing helped." Her voice was breaking as she tried to hold back the tears; she was coming apart at the seams.

"Thank you." He turned to the man in front of him. He was already checking his airway; it wasn't good. "Right, I need an intubation kit, 8.0mm tube, now!"

Within moments he was at the head of the bed tilting the man's head back to see his airway clearly. Lily was gently moved aside by a nurse.

"Laryngoscope."

His favoured nurse, Poppy, passed one within seconds. Severus held the man's head, his eyes focused on hiss passageway, and gently slid the scope to the right of the man's mouth. He then held his tongue to one side as the scope slid down his throat.

"Tube."

He guided the tube down his throat. It became stuck just past his uvula and Severus frowned.

"7.0mm tube; his lymph nodes are enlarged."

The tube slipped in with ease this time. He removed the scope, gently, before ensuring the pilot balloon was inflated and attaching it to the ventilator. He watched the patient's chest; when it rose and fell gently, he sighed in relief.

"I want him admitted to the ICU immediately. His vitals need to be monitored; get a chest x-ray and a full blood panel. We also need a catheter and central line fitting, and monitor his urine output; anything out of the ordinary page myself or Dr. McGonagall," he rattled off to his faithful Poppy. "Oh, and a urine test".

"Yes, Dr. Snape, and what will you be doing?" Poppy questioned with a curt smile.

"Poppy, I'll be getting a full and detailed history," he said with a smile.

"You're speaking to the family?" She smirked.

"I'm just trying it out."

Severus turned round to see a petrified Lily. His heart sank. He wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of the day talking to her. But not about him! Severus had purposefully pretended not to know the man she had chosen over him. He truly hated Potter.

"I think coffee is in order."

Much to his delight, Lily nodded.

They sat in a small room just off the ICU; the walls were painted a warm cream colour. There were plush sofas with cushions and throws. It was all in an effort to help families feel like their entire world wasn't falling apart.

Severus got the coffee, making it just how she liked it. He turned to her, watching as she pulled at the already fraying threads of her thick cardigan. She looked just as distraught as she had before; he imagined watching the intubation of a loved one didn't exactly inspire hope.

"Here," he handed her the steaming cup, "milk, three sugars? Even though I still feel obligated to educate you on the dangers of a high sugar diet." He tried a smile; it had been a while.

"You remembered?" Her lips upturned slightly—not enough to be considered a smile, but then people rarely smiled in the ICU waiting room.

"Of course. But, uh, I need his medical history." His voice was barely a whisper; he wasn't used to this aspect of the job. Usually, he would get the tests, leaving the questioning to Poppy.

"Erm, what do you need to know?" She stumbled over the words inelegantly.

"It's ok, just answer the questions as best you can. When did his symptoms start?"

"A week ago. It was only a cough—the flu, I guess." She continued to decimate the cardigan, a habit he remembered from the last moments he had with her. She had been heartbroken; it was all his fault of course.

"Has he had pneumonia before?"

"As a child, I think; he has a weak immune system, but it hasn't been a problem since we married. Oh my god, I don't even know the details!" She starting sobbing, and he saw how helpless she felt. She wore her heart on her sleeve; he thought she was strong in her vulnerability.

"That's ok; is he on any medication or supplements?"

"No, like I said, it's not been a problem. We try to make sure we run a clean shop; we take germs and illnesses seriously, as I'm sure you can imagine."

"I can." He reached and squeezed her hand. "I'll do my best, I promise."

She smiled now, her shoulders a little less tense, and let out a long-held breath.

"His symptoms, would you describe them as continuous or intermittent?"

"Continuous, but they would occasionally get worse and then ease up. Does that make sense? Is that good or bad?"

"Lily, relax!" He waited whilst she tried to calm herself. "It just gives me the information I need to make a diagnosis; don't think about the good or bad, okay?"

She nodded, her face resolved as she wiped away the escaping tears.

"Is there anything that helped to relieve the symptoms, made him feel better?"

She shook her head as she pulled out a thread of wool and fiddled with it between her fingers.

"Has he traveled recently or been exposed to anything toxic, like chemicals?"

Again she shook her head, and he nodded, his hand still holding hers.

"Has he been around anyone that's been ill?"

"No; we have a baby, but he's been the picture of health. James is very careful."

"I understand. I just need to know about alcohol consumption, smoking, and what vaccines he has had."

"He's an occasional drinker, but since Harry had been born, it's lessened. He's never smoked, and he had all the usual vaccines—they were very careful, his parents. I can get copies of his records."

"No, that's fine." He paused, looking at her. How could he explain what was wrong? He figured he should just come out and tell her everything he knew—anything to stop her worrying.

"Lily, I think he has pneumonia, possibly with another infection. This wouldn't usually be a problem for a man of his age, but it's the weak immune system. That's why things have… escalated." He paused. "There are a variety of tests that we'll do: initially to get him off a ventilator, and secondly to find out which strain of bacteria caused the pneumonia. Once we have that, we'll begin treatment."

"It's definitely pneumonia?" she asked.

"Not definitely; that's why we'll do tests. Your husband has had a variety of medications. They haven't helped him, and I don't want to do anything other than improve his condition. That means we need proof it's pneumonia." He squeezed her hand again.

"He'll be ok?" Her lip trembled.

"I'll do everything I can, I promise!"

That was when she lunged into his embrace, sobbing, and whispered a million thank you's. He was there longer than he'd ever been known to have spent with a family member before.

Severus came back early the next morning. Once he had changed into his forest green scrubs, he made his way to the ICU. He glanced at the chart and then made his way to collect the X-rays and check the tests he'd ordered the day before. He had an early meeting with McGonagall; after all, he was still a student and unable to take action alone. It wasn't long before he was knocking purposefully at her door.

"Come in," she called.

"Minerva, I have x-rays from Mr. Potter in bed two."

She rose, switching on the viewing panel. He passed her the film. They stood in silence for a moment.

"So, what do you see, Severus?"

"I'd say pneumonia; there's also a lot of fluid in the lungs."

"What would you do about that?" she drilled.

"Put in a chest tube, which could get him off the ventilator."

"Anything else?"

"Well, I want to confirm pneumonia. I'm waiting for the blood and urine tests to come back. I'll order a CT to check for abscesses in the lungs."

"And what about Sputum test?"

"It's to test the fluid taken from a deep cough and at this point, I don't know if he'll be conscious."

"Very good. What about the pleural fluid culture?"

"TooI invasive; he needs to improve before I start poking his lungs with a giant needle," he drawled.

"How's the family?"

"He just has a wife and son. She's coping, although she's understandably worried; she wants assurance he'll be ok."

"You spoke to a family member?" She looked at him incredulously.

"You said in my last supervision that I should be more available to families!"

"I know, but I never expected you to do it. I'm impressed!" McGonagall smiled.

"I'm just trying it out; I doubt it'll stick."

"I expect nothing less, Severus. Now you have work to do; chest tubes don't get put in by themselves, you know."

"I can do it without supervision?"

"My best student can."

Severus explained as delicately as he could why the tube was in her husband's chest, draining it of fluid. He neglected to tell her that it'd been his first solo attempt. It'd gone exceptionally well; he had results coming soon, and with the fluid draining, he could get a CT scan.

As the tests came back, it was increasingly clear it was pneumonia, but they didn't know the strain of bacteria. That was a problem; they couldn't treat it without knowing, and the list of antibiotics was a mile long. Dr. McGonagall would hang, draw and quarter him if he treated without proof. He checked the vitals once more and was just marking down the urine output and checking the drip when she entered.

"Any news?"

He turned to face her. She was still in the same clothes that she'd arrived in; the cardigan had seen better days.

"I just noticed; lots of tests, not much treatment…" she trailed off.

"I understand, but we put the chest tube in, and now we can check his lungs for abscesses. He may even come off the ventilator," he said.

"Yeah…" Tears threatened to fall from her eyes again.

He wasn't sure what to say to comfort her, and the first, awkward sentence came tumbling from his lips. "Aww, does somebody need a hug?" he asked gently.

"Said Severus Snape, never!" She laughed lightly, but the tears still fell, and soon she was wrapped in his arms.

"Only to you," he whispered.

"Sev?" She looked up, still wrapped in his arms, her eyes imploring him. "Would you do something for me?"

"For you? Anything."

She pushed him away, pacing the room. Glancing up at him, her face filled with worry. "Promise me you won't wait too long to treat him?"

"I don't need to promise you; I'll do everything I can."

"I'm not stupid, Sev. You know it's pneumonia; there are drugs that could be helping!"

"Lily, it's complicated; different strains require different antibiotics!"

"So, you're telling me that there isn't something you would do in an emergency, something to give him more time? You're telling me the smartest man I know doesn't have a solution?"

"You're asking me to treat him without being sure. Do you know what that could do to me? My career? To your husband, if I'm wrong?"

She nodded.

"And you're asking anyway?"

She nodded again.

It was Severus' turn to pace; he could give Potter penicillin, but it was against protocol. Then again, it covered quite a few of the bacteria strains, and it wasn't as if they would give him so much that when it counted, it would be ineffective. There was no indication he was allergic, and it had a good chance of improving his condition.

He turned to her and stared into her forest green eyes. He would risk his career for the man she chose over him, a man that had played him so that he could get the girl.

"I'll start him on penicillin, unless he's allergic?"

Her face broke into a smile. She shook her head vigorously, launching herself at him. "I knew I could count on you, Sev!"

"I did say anything," he whispered, wrapping his arms around her.

He had put Potter on the penicillin, but it wasn't long before he presented with Angioedema—welts that indicated an allergic reaction. His already low blood pressure was falling.

Severus was paged when the man's heart had stopped pumping all together. Poppy hurried Lily out of the room.

"He's going into Anaphylaxis, get the paddles!" Severus shouted. Poppy was already prepared. "Give him Epinephrine and Dopamine! We need that blood pressure up!"

"Charging to two hundred!" Poppy called whilst another nurse applied compressions. "Clear!"

Severus applied the paddles, shocking Potter's heart.

"Charge to three hundred!" he called, the compressions resuming.

"Clear!" she shouted.

Severus shocked him again.

"Charge to four hundred!" he called desperately.

"Clear!"

Severus shocked him again. Potter arched off the bed, and a faint heartbeat resumed. Severus sighed as he looked over everything that the man had been prescribed, everything that had gone into his system. At that moment he realised Potter was allergic to penicillin.

"Dr. Snape, what caused this?"

"Penicillin; we need to flush it out of his system, now!" His head was in his hands.

"Speak to McGonagall; she'll know what to do," Poppy urged.

Severus nodded. His heart sank; it wasn't looking good.

With some trepidation, he made his way up to McGonagall's office. He had the chart, and the chart didn't lie. All he could do was hope that she knew something he didn't. Once he was there, he stood outside the door, not wanting to enter. When he finally knocked, she called him in straight away. She sat behind her desk with a pile of charts, her eyes tired and her lips pursed. The usually tight bun atop her head was slipping.

"Ah, Severus, how is Mr. Potter?" She smiled like he was the student she didn't need to worry about.

The smile faded when he slumped in the chair. He told her the truth; everything, his history with the wife, the favour that he had done her, and how it had gone horribly wrong.

"Give me the chart!" she demanded, her expression not improving. "And this is the most up to date information?"

"I came straight here," he whispered.

"Of all the students to do this..." She paused. "Severus, my most detached student, brilliant, but appalling bedside manner, terrible with families, the one time you engage… you make the worst decision! We need proof for a reason!" she was shouting by the end. "You know what this chart tells me, don't you?"

"I was hoping that you could fix it." He looked up.

"I don't have a magic wand, Severus! Her husband is falling into a coma and he won't wake; you do know that, don't you?"

Severus nodded.

"You will have to tell her."

"Please, don't!" he pleaded; he couldn't stand to look in those forest green eyes and tell her what he had done. "I—I can't!"

"Severus," she paused, shaking her head, "of all my students? You will tell her.

#severus snape #Lily Evans #lily potter #harry potter fanfiction #Harry Potter #harry potter fandom #pro snily #Muggle AU

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orbemnews · 3 years

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When the doctor is the patient: UW Health cardiologist gets rare heart-kidney transplant Dr. Matt Wolff, a UW Health cardiologist, got a rare heart-kidney transplant in October. He has a genetic heart condition that cut short the lives of many family members, including his father, who died at age 50. “I’m 60, so I’m doing way better than the odds,” said Wolff, who has an art studio in a shed at his home near Cross Plains. JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL David Wahlberg | Wisconsin State Journal Dr. Matt Wolff became a cardiologist, treating heart disease, before learning he has a genetic heart condition that can cause people to die suddenly as his father did at age 50. After spending years as UW Health’s chief of cardiology, replacing heart valves and doing angioplasties to clear blocked arteries, Wolff has undergone a major procedure himself: a heart-kidney transplant. Wolff, 60, received a heart and a kidney from the same deceased donor at UW Hospital in October. He was one of five people to get the double transplant at UW last year, a record. It’s a step he tried to avoid through diet, exercise, medications, implanted devices and research into his family history, which led to the discovery that his great-grandfather died from the heart condition at 40 in 1900. Other relatives, male and female, died from it in their 30s and 40s. “I worked hard to not have to get a transplant, but there’s no escaping genetics,” Wolff said. His heart problems led him to stop performing procedures in October 2019 and start working half-time seeing only clinic patients. But with his new heart and kidney, he’s back to hiking the Ice Age Trail near his home north of Cross Plains, where he grows organic vegetables. He hopes to return to work part time this spring. “These organs are working perfectly, as best I can tell,” he said. “I’ve started thinking about all the things I’m going to do now that were out of the question before.” When Wolff’s father died from heart failure and an abnormal heart rhythm in 1978, doctors told the family the condition wasn’t hereditary. Wolff was 18, a freshman at the College of Wooster south of Cleveland, not far from his hometown of Tiffin, Ohio. He majored in biology and went to medical school at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Wolff gets a checkup at UW Hospital three months after his heart-kidney transplant from Dr. Fahad Aziz, right, and Dr. Kurtis Swanson. “It’s weird to be on the other side, laying on the table,” he said. “You kind of want to tell them, ‘Go that way, buddy.'” JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL During his residency at Johns Hopkins, at age 27, he decided to specialize in cardiology. He was intrigued by the heart’s complex blood flow and drawn to procedures that could make people better quickly. He wasn’t swayed by his dad’s fatal heart condition, at least not knowingly. “If it was an influence, it was a subconscious influence,” he said. Wolff was swimming in the Chesapeake Bay at age 29 when he felt an irregular, rapid heartbeat. He wondered if it was connected to his dad’s disease. “It did sort of light a little bulb in my brain,” he said. In his early 30s, he had more irregular heartbeats, or atrial fibrillation. He read about a family with a genetic form of dilated cardiomyopathy, in which the heart muscle becomes weakened and enlarged, impeding blood flow and potentially causing heartbeats so irregular they can be fatal. Soon, he was convinced he and family members who died young or developed heart problems had the same condition. He read his grandmother’s life story, which said her father died in 1900 from “dropsy,” an old-fashioned term for swelling from excess fluid. The condition, known today as edema, is frequently caused by heart disease. Researchers in Boston tested Wolff’s family and four others, identifying a gene mutation that gives each child of an affected parent a 50% chance of having genetic dilated cardiomyopathy. The study traced the inheritance in Wolff’s family to his great-grandfather. Dr. Matt Wolff walks near his home north of Cross Plains. He exercised regularly before his genetic heart condition caused heart failure and abnormal heart rhythms so life-threatening that he needed a heart-kidney transplant. He’s feeling much better today, he said. JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL When the researchers reported their findings in 1999 in the New England Journal of Medicine, Wolff was listed as a co-author. In the paper’s chart of family trees, squares and circles symbolizing people affected by the condition are shaded and those without it are blank. Wolff’s square is half-shaded — which he said he insisted on to the dismay of the lead authors — because he wasn’t convinced he had all the signs. “It was great stubbornness on my part,” he said. “I wasn’t fully prepared to admit it at that point. Psychologically, this is a bit of a struggle.” Becoming sicker By the time the paper was published, Wolff had been at UW Health for nearly seven years. He became chief of cardiology before moving to UnityPoint Health-Meriter for a while and returning to UW. His episodes of arrhythmia were rare but dangerous. “I had to lie on the floor, put my feet up on the chair, pull the telephone down by the cord and call somebody to get me,” he said, recalling one incident in his office at UW Hospital. “I was that close to death.” Wolff goes to an appointment at UW Health’s Transplant Clinic. He is one of five people at UW Hospital and 289 in the country who got a heart-kidney transplant last year. JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL He received a pacemaker to counter abnormal heart rhythms. The device was upgraded to an implantable defibrillator, which delivers corrective shocks when it senses life-threatening irregular rhythms. Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. featured_button_text He took numerous medications for his heart problems, including an experimental one he first tested in mice in his lab. The drug, developed by Array Biopharma, now part of Pfizer, is in a phase 3 clinical trial. He exercised regularly, jogging and doing yoga. He and his wife, Kelly, a marketing executive at La Farge-based Organic Valley, ate mostly a heart-healthy Mediterranean diet using the vegetables grown in their sizable garden. But by last summer, Wolff could no longer hold back ancestral fate. His weakened heart left him unable to garden or do yoga. “It got hard to walk up a flight of stairs,” he said. The life-threatening abnormal heart rhythms started occurring more frequently, and drugs no longer helped. Neither did a procedure to burn some of his heart tissue to try to block errant electrical signals. After being hospitalized Oct. 12, Wolff was put on the transplant list. As he waited, doctors inserted a balloon pump in his aorta to help his ailing heart keep pumping blood, a procedure he has performed on others. “We weren’t sure we were going to be able to get him to transplant,” said Dr. Jason Smith, a UW Health heart transplant surgeon. “He was close to being as sick as you can get and still survive.” Double transplant Multiple-organ transplants are rare but increasing, with 289 heart-kidney transplants done nationwide last year, more than double the number from five years earlier and nearly five times the total from 2010. Smith UW-MADISON Other transplant combinations include kidney-liver, kidney-pancreas and heart-lung. Each is relatively rare compared to single organ transplants. It’s hard to access two suitable organs from the same donor, Smith said. Using organs from separate donors would make it more likely the recipient’s immune system would reject them. Medications used after transplant for one organ can be hard on the other, Smith said, and patients needing more than one organ tend to be sicker so the operations can be more risky. “It took the field a long time to understand who are the right people to get it,” said Dr. Dixon Kaufman, director of the UW Health Transplant Center. Kaufman UW-MADISON Wolff’s heart problems had caused his kidneys to fail, making him a double transplant candidate. On Oct. 23, a heart and kidney became available from the same donor, and Wolff matched. Smith and his team transplanted the heart early the next morning, and then Kaufman and his team put in the kidney. Wolff was discharged on Nov. 3, Election Day. Brighter days Recovering from the transplant has given him a new outlook. Previously, with his poor health and the significant upkeep on their property, he and Kelly thought they would need to downsize. Now, they plan to stay another five years. Family trips with their three daughters, which had involved exploring Europe or hiking and rafting out West, had seemed impossible for Wolff to continue. Now, he hopes to join in again once the COVID-19 pandemic ends. “I had pretty much stopped planning for the future,” Wolff said. “Now I’ve realized I’m going to be able to do all that.” His daughters, ages 26 to 33, live in Portland, Oregon. They visited for two months after the transplant, following strict coronavirus prevention measures. He declined to say if any of them have the gene mutation for the heart condition. Before he got a heart-kidney transplant in October, Wolff and his wife, Kelly, thought they wouldn’t be able to continue living at their home and sizable property near Cross Plains. Now they’ve decided to stay. JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL Wolff has adjusted to seeing only clinic patients, missing the adrenaline rush of procedures but not being on call in the middle of the night. His transplant gave him more insight into the patient experience, he said, from taking difficult combinations of medications and filling out complicated forms to providers sometimes not showing up for appointments on time. “There’s some inefficiencies in medical care that become more apparent when you’re on the receiving end,” Wolff said, adding that his care was excellent overall. He doesn’t know anything about his organ donor, including the person’s gender or age. But he understands the events that transpired, as they do for any deceased donor transplant. Someone had to die — likely suddenly and unexpectedly, with a grieving family — in order for him to stay alive. In a letter this month to the donor’s family, Wolff expressed sorrow for their loss and appreciation for his gift of life. “Your kindness, selflessness, and generosity in the setting of what I imagine was terrible and unexpected grief is inspiring,” he wrote. His transplant is a gift, he wrote, “that I will remain grateful of every day, one that I will work to my utmost to deserve, and one I will try to pay forward.” Get local news delivered to your inbox! Source link Orbem News #cardiologist #cardiology #cardiomyopathy #covid-19 #Doctor #full-longform #Genetic #Health #health-care #heart #heartkidney #hereditary #Kidney #mattwolff #medical #newenglandjournalofmedicine #Patient #rare #transplant #uwhealth

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cubaverdad · 7 years

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The Cuban hustle - Doctors drive cabs and work abroad to make up for meager pay

The Cuban hustle: Doctors drive cabs and work abroad to make up for meager pay By ROB WATERS FEBRUARY 8, 2017 HAVANA — He knew as a child that he wanted to be a doctor, like his father. He went to medical school, became a general surgeon and ultimately a heart specialist. He practiced at Cuba's premier cardiovascular hospital, performed heart transplants, and published articles in medical journals. For this, Roberto Mejides earned a typical doctor's salary: about $40 a month. It wasn't nearly enough, even with the free housing and health care available to Cubans, to support his extended family. So in 2014, Mejides left them behind, moving to Ecuador to earn up to $8,000 a month working at two clinics and performing surgeries. It's a common story here, where waiters, cabdrivers, and tour guides can make 10 to 20 times the government wages of doctors and nurses — thanks to tips from tourists. "Doctors are like slaves for our society," said Sandra, an art student and photographer's assistant who makes more than her mother, a physician. "It's not fair to study for so many years and be so underpaid." Cuba is proud of its government-run health care system and its skilled doctors. But even with a raise two years ago, the highest paid doctors make $67 a month, while nurses top out at $40. That leaves many feeling demoralized — and searching for ways to improve their lives. Some enter the private economy — by renting rooms to tourists, driving cabs, or treating private patients, quasi-legally, on the side. Thousands of others accept two-year government assignments to work as doctors abroad, collecting higher salaries for themselves and earning billions for the state, which helps keep the stagnant economy afloat. In fact, health workers are Cuba's largest source of foreign exchange. A few doctors, like Mejides, arrange foreign employment on their own, putting at risk their future ability to return to a government job in the health system back home. "It's hard to migrate and be alone," Mejides said in Spanish, during a video phone call from Ecuador to a reporter visiting Havana in October. "It's stressful. I am in the wrong place. I should be with my family in my country, working and being rewarded properly." Still, with his Ecuador earnings, he was able to buy his wife, two daughters, and two stepdaughters a $23,000 apartment in Havana, and he sends them $300 to $500 a month. Renting out rooms to make ends meet While doctors back in Cuba grumble about their low pay, they usually find ways to make do. Sandra's mother, Nadia, a genetics researcher, earns about as much as she pays a cleaning woman to maintain her three-bedroom Havana apartment. Whenever she can, she rents one of those rooms to tourists for $40 a night, making more in two nights than she does from her monthly earnings as a doctor. She asked that her full name not be used to avoid any problems with the government. The rental income allows Nadia to have a modestly comfortable life and to be able to buy fruits and vegetables at farmers markets. But a restaurant meal is a rare treat, and traveling abroad is impossible. Still, she loves her work and the intellectual challenge of her research into genetic diseases. She said many Cuban doctors are committed and provide excellent service, in part because of the ways they have learned to overcome shortages of equipment and technology. "We don't have all the electronic tools, so we have to learn to do things other ways, to diagnose just by external examination," she said, over a dinner of fish and rum at her apartment. She'd like to earn more money, of course, and she understands why so many doctors, including many she knows, have chosen to leave Cuba. "I'm not ambitious for money," she said. "I get rent from visitors, and I get to live in Cuba. I have a nice house, and I'm happy with what I have. But I'm not a millionaire." Cecilia, a 60-year-old former nurse who also asked that her full name not be used, spent 25 years working in government hospitals and clinics. To adapt to the shortages, she learned to make inventos medicos — medical inventions — using a chair or bench to raise the back of a patient's bed, for example, or cutting the tip off an intravenous line to fashion an oxygen feed to a patient's nose. But she became disillusioned by the chronic shortages and the stress she saw in both her patients and colleagues. "The material scarcity is so overwhelming that it keeps people from dedicating all the passion, love, and brain power that they should to their patients in need," she said, sitting in a rocking chair in her third-floor Havana apartment. "I was the one who had to face the patients and tell them we don't have the drug that you need. It was very common. And I didn't want to do that any more." Doctors and nurses "have the best intentions, but they face so many obstacles, there are so many things on their mind," she added. "The doctor might be treating a patient but they are actually thinking: 'When I get home, at God knows what time, what am I going to feed my kid?'" She quit nursing in the early 2000s and later began to pursue her passion, doing hands-on alternative medicine that combines techniques of massage, kinesiology, magnetic therapy, and so-called floral therapy, which uses extracts of flowers and herbs as healing agents. Her work with private clients, who come to her apartment, is permitted under a license for massage, the only form of healing work included on a list of government-approved private services and businesses. Working three days a week, she earns almost $120 a month "if all my appointments show up," she said. "I use to make that in six months working at the hospital." A surplus of doctors In the years after Fidel Castro seized power in 1959, Cuba invested heavily in education and science, training tens of thousands of doctors, nurses, and scientists. As a result, Cuba, a country of 11.2 million people, today has 90,000 doctors, the most per capita in the world. About 25,000 of these doctors, along with 30,000 Cuban nurses and other health professionals, are working in 67 countries around the world. They earn about $8.2 billion in revenue for the government, according to a recent article in Granma, the official paper of the Cuban Communist Party. The bulk of the doctors, about 20,000, are in Brazil and Venezuela. Over the last three years they provided treatment to 60 million Brazilians, mostly the rural poor, said Cristián Morales Fuhrimann, the Pan American Health Organization's representative in Havana. Cuba receives about $5,000 a month per doctor from Brazil, pays each doctor about $1,200, and banks the rest, said John Kirk, a professor of Latin American studies at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, who has researched Cuba's program of medical missions. Most of the doctors' shares are deposited in their Cuban bank accounts, requiring them to return home to collect it. "Cuba has too many doctors, so their main source of hard currency is to rent out medical services," Kirk said. Once close allies of Havana, Brazil and Venezuela have been engulfed in political and economic crises that will cause them to reduce their use of Cuban doctors in the coming years. That may lead Cuba to redeploy some doctors to other parts of the world, including the Middle East. In Qatar, an oil-rich emirate about as far from Cuba geographically and culturally as any place in the world, the so-called Cuban Hospital is fully staffed by 400 Cuban doctors, nurses, and technicians. Cuba's dispatch of doctors not only generates revenue, it is also an exercise in soft power that allows the country to spread its influence around the globe. "It's a major contribution to the health of the world," said Morales. "They made a big difference in fighting Ebola in Africa, in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew in Haiti." Some Cuban doctors working overseas have defected to the United States, aided by a policy launched during the administration of George W. Bush that permitted Cuban medical personnel to go to the US with their spouses and children. In its last weeks in office, the Obama administration announced it was ending the program. Since the Cuban Medical Professional Parole Program began in 2006, more than 9,000 medical professionals and their family members were approved for admission to the US. In the past four years, the number of entrants spiked, reaching almost 2,000 for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. The Cuban government and the Pan American Health Organization protested the policy as a form of poaching that undermined Cuba's health system and impeded newfound cooperation between the US and Cuba. In a statement, Obama acknowledged that the program "risks harming the Cuban people." Cuban doctors are in demand internationally because they come cheap, are well-trained, and work in a public health system that is highly organized and well-run. In Cuba, primary care clinics are available in every neighborhood. Specialists in cancer, immunology, genetic medicine, and cardiovascular disease staff the hospitals. Life expectancy rates, which two generations ago were at Third World levels, are today roughly equal to those in the United States. But the absence of so many doctors also provokes complaints from patients, who say it keeps them from getting the best care. They also grouse that they have to bring their own food and bedsheets, wait for appointments or medications — and provide gifts to doctors to ensure good treatment. When the 61-year-old father of Concepcion, a young Cuban professional, was diagnosed with prostate cancer last summer, she used personal connections to enable her father to see a specialist promptly. Concepcion, who asked that her full name not be used to avoid reprisals or damage to her professional standing, also provided daily gifts of food, cosmetics, and sometimes cash to doctors, nurses, and technicians while her father was hospitalized for a month in Holguin, a city in eastern Cuba. "Doctors are used to receiving gifts," she said. "You give the gift and the attention starts getting better. If you stop and the attention goes down, you go back to handing out gifts. You feel sorry for the doctors because they work really hard under bad conditions and you always feel like they're not being rewarded." She estimated she spent about $500 on gifts and food, an amount she said would have doubled had he been hospitalized in pricier Havana. Jose dos Santos, a Cuban journalist who needs regular treatment for his diabetes, said the care he receives is excellent. Bringing gifts to doctors "has become a habit because we know that the job doctors do needs to be better rewarded," he said. "We don't produce oil," he added, "but we produce talent, and it makes sense that that talent is acknowledged and rewarded." In December, Roberto Mejides moved again, this time to Merida, Mexico, where he plans to work for the next four years. His income will be roughly the same as in Ecuador, but now he's just 90 minutes by air from Havana. He hopes to bring his family to join him in the coming months, "My hopes have always been the same, to work honestly and to provide my family with an adequate life," he said. Someday, he added, he wants to return to Cuba: "It's my country, my homeland." Rob Waters can be reached at [email protected] Follow Rob on Twitter @robwaters001 Source: Cuban doctors drive cabs and work abroad to compensate for meager pay - http://ift.tt/2lq478j via Blogger http://ift.tt/2k3w3Nz

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orbemnews · 3 years

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