A Teachable Moment

I received an email from my mom this morning that reminded me of the inherent goodness in people and how incredible acts of kindness leave an impression that lasts a lifetime.  I shared a child-friendly version of this story with my children, passing along my mom’s teachable moment to them.  I also want to share it on my blog.

Hi,

I thought I should tell you that Dr. George Rowe passed away on Friday.  I am sure that Ginger and Wendy remember the Rowes - not so sure that Meri & Mike would remember them.  George was a wonderful man.  He was at first a general surgeon and then became a pediatric surgeon.  He operated on Michael when Mike was two and I trusted him completely. 

When George was in medical school, my little sister was diagnosed with neuroblastoma.  The doctors in Terre Haute told my parents to "take her home and let her die" because there was nothing that could be done for that disease.  My dad called George and begged him to help our family.  George had my dad come to the IU Medical School library and they looked up everything written about neuroblastoma.  My dad was frantically trying to write everything down about it that he could.  There were no copy machines at that time.  When George saw my dad's exasperation, he tore the pages out of the books for him.  Perhaps not an ethical thing to do but he recognized the pain and urgency of a desperate father. 

One of the articles highlighted positive results when children with neuroblastoma contracted chicken pox.  The antibodies that fought the chicken pox virus apparently also fought the neuroblastoma cells.  George then helped my Dad orchestrate a plan to have children with active cases of chicken pox come and be exposed to my sister.  My dad placed ads in all major city newspapers in Indiana, offering to pay families $50 to bring their child to our house to play with my sister.  My brothers and I all came down with severe cases of chicken pox and our house was quarantined (something they did in those days).  Unfortunately, my sister never caught the chicken pox, but George would have done anything to help an ailing child and her mother and father.  As long as I knew him, his greatest gifts were his gift to heal and his offer of hope. 

George  was diagnosed with bile duct cancer in December.  He took chemo for four months, but did not have positive results. 

Dad and I will miss him and I will always remember how he gave my family hope when no one else did.

I attached his obituary if you would like to read it.

Love,

Mom