View from Stanford
A young medical student at Stanford University stood before the table of RZIM [Ravi Zacharias International Ministries] books and resources beaming. “We don’t see these things very often,” he said, clarifying, “Not books; there’s no shortage of books. I mean Christianity without the hostility.” He proceeded to describe students and friends who deride the possibility of possessing both faith and intellect, medical professors who actually apologize when the language of design inadvertently slips into lectures on the body, and the isolation that comes from trying to stand in the shadows of this...
Read MoreA thought experiment
Our perfectly designed US healthcare systemThe interregnum between a presidential election and the inauguration is a time of feverish activity, in which the president elect and his staff decide who will help them govern and what they will try to do first. The press and pundits speculate breathlessly on who will be appointed and what they will do first. As I write this, for example, we have just learnt that the new administration’s secretary of health and human services is likely to be a respected former US senator, Tom Daschle. He has written a book about healthcare reform, which is likely...
Read MoreBe present
Practice presenceBreathe in the squeaky cry of a too-thin infantdirt blowing off the road in your eyesthe pain of having too little to giveBreathe out flaming bougainvilleathe sun fading behind the hillmagic of medicine on an infected handBreathe in poverty and pain and confusionthe ache of tip-toeing on another’s sufferingBreathe out fresh watermelonHonduran coffee in the morninga game of duck-duck-goose.Breathe in the guilt of problems unanswered,wasted time, a broken worldBreathe out a new friendship and a fresh coat of paint.Practice presence –learn to sit still, listen longer, absorb...
Read MoreIn Memory of Bill Kamell
A ‘Compassionate, devoted’ manCanandaigua, NY — Compassionate caregiver, doting grandfather, man of deep and profound faith. These are just some of the ways family and friends will remember Dr. William M. Kamell, a longtime area orthopedic surgeon who died Oct. 16 at the age of 63.Dr. Kamell had such a deep and abiding passion for life, they said, that he still found reasons to celebrate even as a rare auto-immune condition robbed him of the things he loved to do.“He affirmed that life is good and worth living,” said Dr. Kamell’s oldest daughter, Lisa Hough, of Canandaigua. “In the end, it...
Read MoreTrip to Honduras
URMC to provide help in Hondurasby Justina Wang. Democrat & Chronicle Staff writerNext month, about a dozen University of Rochester Medical Center doctors, nurses and students will travel to Honduras to repair water filters, build cook stoves, hand out school supplies and talk with impoverished families. It’s not pure medical work, but they believe their helping hands could do more for the health of people in developing countries than any stethoscope or needle.”It’s so easy to see there that if you don’t have clean water and your child gets diarrhea three times a...
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