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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (73197)	8/25/2003 9:57:55 AM
From: Rambi	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

And what wonderful people he is going to school with There has been a lot of America bashing going on and I hope we don't forget in the midst of it all, that we are capable of great generosity and kindness as a people- not only to our own, but to others we see in need. There was an article in the Dallas paper yesterday about Egyptian twins, conjoined at the head, who are going to be separated at CHildren's Medical in Dallas. The lead surgeon is doing it pro bono. The family has no money and while the hospital ethics committee had approved the surgery, the cost was so enormous that there was concern about whether they could do it. (Ibrahim is the father's name) The Children's ethics committee had already reviewed the operation, but hospital leaders needed to agree. These were not Children's patients, though, and administrators, facing waiting rooms lined with families unable to afford their own medical bills, couldn't endorse donating almost $2 million worth of care to two little boys from Egypt. Even that figure was conservative, assuming neither would end up like Angela Lakeberg, surviving only on expensive life support after her sister's death. The hospital's budget was already cracking under Texas' growing numbers of uninsured and shrinking rates of government reimbursement. Yet how could a pediatric hospital justify turning away such uniquely needy children? For four months, executives and physician leaders mulled things over, finally in March reaching a verdict. The surgery could take place at the hospital, but not without $125,000 to recover at least the basic costs. Ibrahim was stunned. He clearly did not have that much money. The Craniofacial Foundation didn't have it either, and even if it did, the organization's guidelines prohibited direct payment for medical care. During a time of war with Iraq, the foundation would have to make an appeal to the people of Dallas to help two Middle Eastern boys they had never met. With his sons' fate resting on American generosity, Ibrahim came to believe that he would be taking his children home just as they'd come. The response to the pleas astounded him. When word filtered out through broadcast and print, donations poured in to the foundation. Community leaders quickly organized a fund-raiser at the Dallas Central Mosque. Sitting in the audience at the mosque gym that night, Ibrahim scanned the room filled with strangers, hundreds of them, ready to help his sons. For the first time since his arrival in Dallas, he felt a connection to this place. For the first time, he felt happy. "The hope came back again that night," he says. Within days, Texas well-wishers – Muslims, Jews, Christians alike – had pledged not $125,000, but close to $200,000. Passers-by approached the family in grocery stores and restaurants, opening their wallets.