Rush News Blog

Tuesday, February 2 at 5:34 p.m. ET –

Dr. John Fernandez, orthopedic surgeon at Rush University Medical Center, sent us another text message today as the team leaves the hospital, gets on the bus and heads to the Dominican Republic.

He wrote:

Dr. Jeff Mjaanes, Dr. Geoffrey Van Thiel and Dr. John Fernandez outside their hotel in the Dominican Republic

The past 48 hours have given us some hopeful stories of sacrifice and compassion even among those with little left to give.

I gave a breakfast bar to a four-year-old, who we had operated for a bad leg wound. I knew he was hungry. He nor his father had asked for anything. When I saw him later he was still holding half the bar. I asked if he wasn’t hungry. He said he was saving it for his brother at home. Compassion from a four-year-old.

When Dr. Geoff Van Thiel, our chief resident, rounded on one of our post-operative patients in the morning he was told she may have had a stroke. He suspected different and thought she may have the beginnings of tetanus as her jaw was ridged and she could not eat. She died later that morning.

The day before we had placed an external fixator on her ankle for a horrible wound. We asked some of the details of how she was injured. She was crushed after going back into her house for one of her children. Sacrifice from a mother.

I wonder how many acts of compassion and sacrifice have occurred here? Some small … some large. Most will never be recognized.

Despite the devastating injuries it is surprising how quickly we have become accustomed triaging and treating them. You make a quick calculation of what’s wrong, what we have, and you do what you can. Simple. The hard part has not been treating the wounds, but being a witness to the stories of how they came to be.

Dr. John Fernandez