Physicians

Sunday, February 13, 2011

It was 3 am early this morning and I just dropped off a taxi fare from Missouri to a nightclub in Illinois. The Illinois taxi cab drivers don’t like us Missouri taxi cab drivers around so I started to return to Missouri.

As I neared the Route Three 24 hour liquor gas station I heard someone from a minivan taxi cab yelling at me to come back. I though “What on earth could this guy possibly want?” All of a sudden his side door opened and he screamed at a lady to get out of his cab. He beat on the side of his door as he pulled away and a sobbing girl ran and jumped into my cab. All I could think is “this should be interesting.”

As I drove on route three towards Missouri I asked “what happened?” She said ”It’s been an awful night. I travel allot and hardly ever get to go out and nothing went well tonight. My friends and I got into a fight at the club and to top it off that guy threw me out of his cab because all I have is a credit card and they don’t accept credit cards. Do you?” I responded “I’m sorry to hear that happened. Yes, any credit card, it’s not a problem at all.”

The tears kept rolling and I had no idea what I would talk about that would cheer her up. I don’t like it when the whole entire taxi fare is tear filled even though there’s nothing I can do about it.

“What kind of work do you do?” I asked. She said “I’m a travel agent for a physicians group. I like the job but doctors are so egotistical” “Yes they can be.” I responded. I told her about what it was like to drive a taxi cab and how it got me into volunteering to help the homeless of St Louis and about ways that I try to help in Haiti via twitter from my cell phone and lap top. “Being a virtual volunteer for Haiti is ok. Pretty cool stuff.”

The tears stopped and she told me about a conference she recently attended in Phoenix. She said “A physician gave a presentation on a recent medical volunteer trip he took to Haiti. The audience was rapt with attention as he explained how much help is still needed and he showed graphic pictures of conditions….” She stopped herself mid sentence as if she said something wrong so I said “but it was uplifting to hear him talk about how he helped.” She gave an enthusiastic “Yes it was.” I said “the doctors are alright. It’s just that they are in charge of retaining and having to recall more information than most of us are capable of. But they are human and it’s wonderful to see what pulls on their heartstrings and how they show the world compassion. We are all human after all.”

She was rapt with attention and asked “what doctors do you help?”. The first one that came to my mind is Dr Megan Coffee. I said “I’m not sure how effective I am but I do my best to tweet for Dr Coffee as she runs a tuberculosis and HIV/Aids ward in Port au Prince general hospital.”

I said “Dr Coffee has been in Haiti over a year now and does allot with minimal resources and a very small Haitian staff but she needs allot of donations to continue her good work.”

As we neared the lady’s house I got ready for the credit card transaction and gave her a link to Dr Coffee’s website http://doctorcoffee.org/ and said “If you know of any physicians who would want to help Dr Coffee continue her good work, please give them this link” She said “I will.”

https://www.nj.com/njv_bob_braun/2010/07/doctor_from_maplewood_voluntee.html Maplewood doctor volunteers at Haiti’s largest hospital after devastating earthquake

Dr. Megan Coffee https://myhero.com/M_Coffee_dnhs_ky_US_2017_ul

Braun: In easing Haiti’s suffering, N.J. doctor finds meaning of joy

https://www.nj.com/njv_bob_braun/2011/06/braun_a_nj_doctor_dedicates_he.html

Photographer: Richard Street
Organization: Streetshots
Exhibit Title: Miracle Worker: Saving Haitians from Tuberculosis
Location: Port-au-Prince, Haiti
https://socialdocumentary.net/exhibit/Richard_Street/1259