Cardiac.
If youve spent time following my blog, then you will know how ive been wrestling and pouring out my heart… And everyone knows, the heart as an organ is equally important as the invisible, yet real feelings we all experience.
Tonight, at midnight, laying in a – truly – miraculous bed, i want to write about the invisible organ that keeps us all alive.
I want to write about one of the stories that i got to be a part of while here in Ethiopia.
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Unsung Heros.
What is that again? It’s part of the race, where some teams spend time researching for, finding, interviewing, visiting, and connecting potential ministries/organizations/individuals to Adventures in Missions so that they can host future teams abroad.
One sunny-rainy-cloudy day while sitting in a cafe (for wifi), researching potential interviewees, i spied an important looking gentleman patiently listening to a lady – who it appeared he was interviewing.
He sat with three people who seemed to be Ethiopian, while he himself was clearly not, and he nodded as they all conversed in English.
As i sat there, periodically glancing at them, i had the destinct inclination to go and introduce myself. Perhaps, i thought, this would be a connection – perhaps he was from a school interviewing teachers…perhaps his school would want future volunteers…
I quelled my curiosity and continued to research, read, and email.
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When our team was preparing to leave, i noticed that only the caucasian man and another gentleman who appeared to be his colleague remained chatting.
I mentioned to my teammate Grace that maybe we should take this opportunity to introduce ourselves. “Do you, Carolyn!” she encouraged.
Tired as they were, my teammates agreed to wait for me while i introduced myself.
At this point i was feeling foolish, yet wanting to remain undaunted and available to God i did so.
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From that simple act, i met this amazing man, an Archeologist, Author, Professor, and friend, and through him met two other men, one his universary colleague, and the other a filmmaker in Ethiopia!
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Through the filmaker, we were referred to some schools and a Cardiac Center. The Cardiac Center connection is the story i want to focus on today.
Several days after our connection, we were picked up in a van, and taken across the city through many varied streets.
If you had ridden along with us, you would have seen the snake of cars (before, behind, and on either side of us coughing black exhaust no less) and on either side a mish-mash of buildings in various stages of construction, buildings that are banks, or hotels, or shops – all more than one story with the appearance of age and polution stains, flanked by or proceeded by little sidewalk shops…stools and umbrellas and corragated metal tarped up boxes housing wares of all types – or simple shoe shiners ranging from all ages, even down to young boys of perhaps 10 years old, with grins still white with teeth.
The sidewalks are swarming with people moving around and through eachother at a pace somewhat faster than the cars, which converge and merge as if there are no lines painted on the road below.
Humans dodge in and out of traffic, crossing streets, or avoiding traffic on the sidewalks..the sidewalks themselves are at times not even sidewalks, but simple dirt paths. Where there is cement or bricks or paving of some sort, there is inherently puddles of chocolate milk water, or sudden gouges and raw burgundy dirt staring up towards the sunny, then grey, and quickly pouring sky.
We stare out the window as little shops heaped with vegetables and fruit, and then clothes of all colors slowly slip past along with the throngs …until finally we arrive to a gated in building: the Cardiac Center.
We are ushered inside and taken by our driver to a simple office where it appears three secretaries are hard at work.
We are greeted with smiles and ushered further in to a back room where a slim man thanks our driver and greeting us, ushers us out and down another hall…
The hospital halls glow grey blue.
We are taken to a bigger office and greeted by a warm elder man and asked to sit.
There is a large conference table adjacent to his desk. We sit and cold bottles of water are brought for us on a silver colored tray.
Then the elderly man speaks and introduces himself, Dr. Bailey, the founder of the first Cardiac center in Ethiopia, which we now sit in.
As he tells us about his life, and how he came to found the center, he moves around the office and shows us the pictures lining his wall that speak of the story he is telling.
In 1978 he finished his degree in Pediatrics in New York, but what he really wanted to do was go on to obtain a degree in cardiology.
At the time there were 88 pediatric hospitals in New York alone and only 55 cardiologists hospitals altogether between Canada and the US. Out of all the candidates the program he most wanted to attend picked one out of the 100 candidates they finally interviewed.
When he was interviewed for a position to work in the Cardiology Clinic they asked him “How are you going to practice in Ethiopia without the established field or instruments?” – ” I will find a way” he said.
Miraculously, he was chosen.
“I lack physical strength and gray matter, anyhow I do not lack passion!” He also told us at the time when he started his cardiac degree the first five cardiologist of the world were still alive and that he had met them all.
He told us that since there was no cardiac field in Ethiopia at that time, that in order to find a way, that he alone needed to build it, equip it, man it, and sustain it and he shared with us how he has been fulfilling that Vision since that time.
“I have many certifications and degrees, but i would trade all 9 degrees of mine for one in how to beg.”
He told us that even with the money, proper consumables for the cardiac center cannot be purchased. The US companies that have the consumables (needed for cardiac surgery) available will not make any deals with the Ethiopian country due to the lack of enough consistent finances available for such a contract.
Dr. Bailey decided that the ability to do cardiac surgeries for his people must come at no cost to the patient, or lives could not afford to be saved. But how could this be possible without cost, lack of consumables, and no financial resources? Doctor Bailey decided to create “heart tickets” which could be purchased by donation as small as one burr.
“My idea is that even if – although no single person has the money to pay for someones heart surgery -surely every one of my own people can spare even a single burr in order to help save a heart!”
In this way he started a campaign to raise money by having people buy these heart tickets at a rate of 1, 5, 10, 25 burr.
Once on his way to a conference to raise more support, he climbed out of the car and was met by a crippled leper who blocked his path.
Dr. Bailey pursed his lips and shook his head. “At first i was overcome with annoyance and disgust, but many people were watching me. So i bent down and asked the man, ‘what can i do for you?’ This man,” he told us. “This man is the greatest human being i have ever come across in my life! The man told me that he had begged all morning in nearbye churches and shops so that he could meet me here when i arrived. Now, all he asked of me was that he could buy a one burr heart ticket!” Dr. Bailey flung a finger up towards a photo on the wall.
“This is the man, i keep him here to remind me of who i am working for!” He shakes his head, “Here is another man i greatly respect,” he motions to another picture beside the leper’s. “This is a very famous man in Ethiopia and he has also generously donated to the Cardiology Center. He and i grew up in the same village. We had no shoes and not even our own pair of underpants…”
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Dr. Bailey thanked us for coming and listening to his stories and begged us that when we had the chance, when it arose, that we would advocate on behalf of the center and the people of Ethiopia. “I have built these two buildings that still need $500,000 to finish construction. Once they are finished i aim to rent these and have the income sustain the center.” he shakes his head sadly. “In 40 years i have only gotten this far in my dream. We lack the consumables and must rely on volunteer medical teams to bring them from elsewhere! However, we continue to do heart surgery every week without cost, and i get no salary from this clinic so i can continue to run it.”
Then after many thanks, we are taken on a tour of the now still Clinic. The patients have been discharged, and they will have another 4 on monday. Every week, a few come in on monday, and with the supplies they have, the surgeries are done, lives are saved, and patients are discharged to other recovery clinics or back to their lives.
Dr. Baileys face glows with a dream he shares he may never live to see fulfilled. Then with a slight bow of thanks, he scurries off to consult with some patients who wait in the waiting room.
And i am left in the dim hall, thinking of an ethiopian leper who has begged for a single burr – at his own cost of dignity and well being – in order to help save a heart of his people.
