171 Ashley Ave.
Charleston, SC 29425
843-792-1414
800-424-MUSC
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December 2007
Letter From Our Chair
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L. Lyndon Key, MD
Professor and Chairman
Department of Pediatrics |
Dear faculty, Children's Hospital staff and other friends,
Thanksgiving comes only once a year. It has been said, "Everybody enjoys Thanksgiving except the turkey." Turkeys have a specific propensity for dissecting aortic aneurysms. So if you meet a turkey having a sharp pain in his chest, think "aneurysm".
I am always humbled when Thanksgiving Day comes because we get so much and give so relatively little. Of course, our compassion and our care for our patients is crucial, but we are also very rich compared to many of our neighbors. It is on this day that I start thinking about all the helpless people in the world. It seems that this year there is a particular need for charity. One example of this is the crisis in Darfur, where women and children are huddled in squalid areas with no food, often little water, and
no one to care for them.
This week I received a wonderful letter from Brett, Sheri, Dawson, and Kenan MacLean. The MacLean family moved to Mali in Western Africa in order to help build a children's hospital. Brett is a pediatrician and his dream is to be able to serve the more than 180,000 children who live in the area. As you'll read in the letter, they're hoping for a miracle and with Dr. MacLean's determination, dedication, and belief... they just might get it.
Read the MacLean family's letter (PDF).
I have been with my brother who lived in a third world country for eight years and seen the disease, hunger, and drought; but also the love, the singing, the sharing, and the gratitude for the littlest gift of love. We do not know that wonder. Last year, Eve Spratt, MD, and Cindy Swenson, PhD, who have been leading an AIDS awareness project, took a group of African American teenage ambassadors from Djole Dance Company to Ghana to increase knowledge and help prevent the spread of AIDS. These children noted that they had never understood how blessed they were with possession, food, and services until seeing the struggles of their friends in Ghana. Please take the time to read more about the Djole Dance Company and the impact that it has had.
Let us all bow our heads and pray, meditate, or just contemplate the gifts we have everyday. After doing that, please contribute what you can to your neighbors and friends around the world. We are not so very different in our hearts. Americans are all comparatively rich and must lead not with arms, but with food, water, healthcare, and education. It is the things that we give away, not that we take away, that will build a better world.
With gratitude for our country, our friends, our loved ones, and for all the rest of humanity who's needs we can help to fulfill, I thank you for your consideration and support.
Sincerely,
L. Lyndon Key, MD
Chair, Department of Pediatrics
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