For my international health class I had to pick a disease and country to study and write three researcher papers on during the semester. The topic I chose was cataracts in Indonesia where 4 million people are blind due to cataracts. The paper I was working on this week was about what Indonesia or other organizations are doing to prevent and treat the disease. While doing research I came across this incredible story of a man named John Fawcett, an Australian potter from Perth. He is clinically dead and comes back from the dead with amnesia and doesn't remember his wife or anyone and was given one week to live. I don't know the full story because I have not seen the documentary, but he gets this uncanny drive for humanitarian work and sets off to Bali to treat cataract blind. He converts an old bus into a mobile medical facility and gets an ophthalmologist to come perform surgeries. Bali has an endemic genetic problem with children born with cataracts who, if they don't receive surgery before 6 months of age, are permanently blind. John has to overcome strong religious beliefs that cataracts are curse for those who sinned or that the person is possessed by evil spirits and convince them that it is in fact a curable disease. To date his organization has given sight to over 25,000 cataract blind! WOW! What an amazing person. Check out the site at www.balieye.org Learning about him and what he has done makes me want to be an ophthalmologist right now and fly over and volunteer and perform surgery for thousands of people and give them there life back if old, or give them a life full of sight if young. Giving them sight will make them productive members of society, influence the economy, and help a struggling Indonesia overall. I can't think of anything else I would want to be more apart of and the tangibility of it makes my desire to study medicine and become and ophthalmologist even that more fierce. And if I get to sail around in a yacht to remote islands of tropical Indonesia to perform surgeries.. all the better :)
I am truly grateful I have chosen a profession where I can serve others and make a significant impact in the lives of others and even improve our global community. I have interviews in Ft. Lauderdale, LA, and Phoenix this month and should hear back from the U medical school. I hope I am accepted somewhere!