Reality for Young Ukrainian Physicians

Today I met with Vita, a very bright young Ukrainian physician who just finished his residency a year ago.  Our initial meeting was at the Christian Medical Association of Ukraine annual meeting about two years ago.  Then he was full of excitement for his profession and to serve his God through the practice of medicine.

 As we continued to catch up on what has transpired in each of our lives since then, it became obvious that he no longer practiced the profession it took him so long to learn.  He currently is the sales manager for a company dealing with dialysis machines.

I could not help wondering why this intelligent young doctor had to throw in the towel so early in his career.  He said, “It is impossible to make a living as a Christian doctor.”  He went on to describe how the paperwork was going to kill him.  The salary just did not allow him to support his family.  He just got married 2 1/2 months ago.

He was not complaining of the amount of paperwork even though everything is hand written but about being able to write the truth about his patients and their diagnoses.  Once again it was an issue of trust.  He said as a physician he does not know why any one would go to a doctor in this country.  In addition, he said the state of technology in this country does not enable you to make a diagnosis with any reliability.

The reality for young Ukrainian physicians is in this current system it does not take long before they just stop caring.

What is the answer?  Building Christian clinics and hospitals, evangelizing and discipling  health care professionals, modeling compassionate and competent care are all part of the solution.  I pray to God how long must your people suffer.

Then and Now

If you were a medical missionary 100 years ago, you would have been sent to a far off country.  It would have taken weeks if not months to communicate with you.  Your task would have been to have compassion for the sick and dying, to care for people.  There would have been little in the way of treatment but much in the way of comfort and eternal hope.  There would have been little chance that you would see the shores of your homeland again.

Now you are able to reach any populated portion of the world within 24 hours, definitely 36.  You have any number of options to communicate with any one, any where, any time instantly.  Your task might involve hands on care, but you more than likely be involved in teaching and providing technology.  Everyone wants the technology to cure disease, so obtaining humanitarian aid and teaching new methods of treatment would help you build relationships with your colleagues in a foreign land in order to share the Gospel and advance God’s kingdom.

 Today was a remarkable day.  During my time in Ukraine I have developed relationships through out both Ukraine and the United States.  A few weeks ago I was asked to assist in obtaining heart surgery for a little one year old boy with complex congenital heart disease.  This child’s problems were so difficult that it was reccommended that he could only be helped in America.  I contacted my friend Dr. Stephen Daniels, who is now the Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at The Children’s Hospital-Denver.  We had trained together back in Cincinnati.  He connected me with Dr. Francois Lacour-Gayet, a cardiovascular surgeon and head of the Department of Surgery  at the same hospital.

We had previously arranged a calling time by e-mail.  It was 5 PM in Ukraine and 8 AM in Denver, CO.  We called using a laptop computer and a head set with microphone.  Despite thousands of miles our voices sounded as if next door.  The young 26 year old surgery resident assisted with some of the details with the computer.  Then he asked what is the purpose of this call and who will I be talking with.  There was instant recognition of the surgeon in the USA.  The resident was in awe saying, “I can’t believe I will shortly be chatting with one of the most famous pediatric heart surgeons in the world.”

We truly live in a global community.  Because of being born and trained as a physician in America, but now living in Ukraine God has given me an unique opportunity to serve both countries through the referrals I am asked to see.  Despite the technology and new treatments, I am still called upon to give true hope which is everlasting and can only be found in the Gospel.  Then and now are really not that much different, as it is writtenin Psalm 90, the days of our lives are seventy years, and if by reason of strength they are eighty years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.  So let us give thanks to the one who truly heals, both body and soul,  providing us with all wisdom and knowledge for our future is in His hands. 

It is a Small World

How life changes and how small the world has become!  I never would have imagined when I was in medical school I would become an international physician.  Never would I have imagined I would feel like the whole United States would be my consultant base.  It really is just a variation of the “Good Ole Boy” system, only now we are linked by computer.   Today I have been in communication with Denver, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, Minneapolis and Kyiv regarding patients I am caring for in Ukraine.  In the not so distant past missionaries were sent to far away places with many never returning home for various reasons.  Communication by what we now call “snail mail” took months.  We receive airmail in 7 to 10 days providing it is not the Christmas season.

Speaking of when I was in medical school, the last thing I would have thought about was being a missionary.  My next to last thoughts would have been about God himself.  God does have a way of grabbing a hold of you, enabling you to do things you neither desired to do or thought were even possible.  I thank Him for the gifts and talents He has given me as well as the opportunities to serve others and share the love He has lavished upon me and tell  of His wondrous deeds with the people of Ukraine, the United States and the rest of the world because of this technology.  The health needs of ordinary people allow me tell of the Great Physician using both word and deed.