The healthcare vocation, if the oath is taken seriously, involves doing no harm. The entire delivery system revolves around a series of checks and balances to ensure that the patient receives the best medical care possible. Years ago, many American docs realized that the gravy train they had enjoyed was about to collapse as politicians began to (somewhat clumsily, I might add) look at all of the ways that scared sick people were spending their healthcare dollars. Limits were set on reimbursement by government programs to individual providers and the rules were laid out with private insurers following close behind. They change daily, and keeping up with those changes is a huge part of being a healthcare practitioner. Those whopping health insurance premiums that you pay are a direct result of the "entitlement" mentality that was rampant when I entered the field back in the late seventies. The norm was for a patient to be admitted for a few days just to "rest" and have some tests. Insurance premiums were fully paid as a perk to employees. Y'all know the rest of the story.

Somewhere during those years becoming a doctor lost its' luster for many Americans. If the doctor's wife, or child, couldn't be a homemaker and play bridge or tennis when she wanted... well, it just wasn't worth the hassle of making housecalls and staying up late to tend to the sick. Thus began the influx of physicians from around the globe to Smalltown USA. This is about one couple who settled here to raise a family and do no harm. Last I heard they were huddled with their young children in Syria waiting for a break in the violence so they could come home.

She is a pediatrician with a strong epidemiology background. He is a gastroenterologist partnered with an a-hole of a dysfunctional American guy. Since they've been a part of our little corner of the world, two children have been born and brought up to elementary school age. They were in Lebanon visiting family and sharing the culture with their kiddos when all hell broke loose. Innocent people caught up in the firestorm that surrounds their heritage. When I think about them, I see images of his happy self scurrying across the parking lot or helping my aunt die peacefully from colon cancer. She travelled the halls of the hospital pregnant as a goose caring for other people's children. Both can be a pain in the butt when they get riled up, but it's always....always...about patient care. We should all be fortunate enough to receive treatment from a doctor like that.

I hope they're okay. We'll keep the faith on that one.

^j^