It was another eventful week in Manila, but unfortunately,
it was a little scarier than I would have hoped. There are a lot of scary things in Manila –
being in rush hour traffic with cars that have no regard for traffic laws,
getting stuck in torrential downpours during monsoon season, having potentially
dengue-infected mosquitoes flying by your legs during the day. However, there are few things that scare a
new husband more than his wife getting sick in a developing country. My wife had a small medical emergency and we
had to go to the emergency room in the middle of the night. Thankfully, everything is okay now due to the
good folks at Makati Medical Center, but it definitely gave us a scare!
As we were sitting in the waiting room in the emergency
department, I was reminded of the fact that I had an opportunity to work at
Makati Medical this summer. It appears
as if I was destined to come to Manila!
It was a great opportunity that would have given me a chance to see the
inner workings of a very successful hospital in a developing country, but it
just wasn’t the right fit. After
researching a bit more, I discovered that Makati Medical Center is indeed one
of the top hospitals in Manila. Upon
closer inspection, when one looks at the top 3 hospitals in Manila, they are
all located in the most affluent areas of the city. While I would have had the chance to see the
high quality of care at one of the country’s most prestigious hospitals, it
would ultimately be a summer providing services to the small percent of the
city that could afford such high quality of care. Not that there is anything wrong with
providing quality care to these folks (like my wife), but I was looking for
something else. My hope is that the rest
of the hospitals in Manila can someday attain the same level of care that
Makati Medical Center provides.
“He who has health
has hope.
He who has hope has
everything.”
I’ve always liked this Arabian proverb, and it was something
I kept in mind when I was choosing what I wanted to do this summer. The work that I am doing now with the WHO
focuses on individuals with some of the most neglected health conditions and
often times without hope. I hope that my
work will contribute to providing these individuals with the hope that the
medicines that they so desperately need will someday be available to them.
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