Saluting Those Who Struggled And Won
We all want a better world. We want to make it better for everyone. So what happened when the going got tough? We made a hashtag!
Yep. We made Surgeo Salute into a #SurgeoSalute to remind us of men and women who came before. It's to organize a campaign around inspiring stories of stubborn visionaries and humble servants. They struggled against entrenched dogma and made do with previous few resources. And what we got for their efforts was a better world.
Help us spread the word. Share #SurgeoSalute with your friends. Let's keep the conversation going. And if you have a favorite salutee, please let us know so we can bring him/her into the parade. And be sure to keep up with #SurgeoSalute on Instagram and Twitter!
Meet some of our salutees:
Charles Judd, or "Charlie" as he was known to us, hailed from an aristocratic missionary family. Against this history, he served the people of Samoa for little pay. Later, as a professor at the John Burns School of Medicine in Honolulu, he taught surgeons not only the fine art of surgery but also the humility with which it should be delivered.
Barry Marshall was born in hardscrabble western Australia. He took up interest in medicine from the books of his mother, the nurse. Later, fed up with the slow course of research, he used himself as a guinea pig. Barry proved that stomach ulcers were caused by bacteria and put to rest the idea that surgery should be administered. He was rewarded with a Nobel Prize. Crazy? Or Amazing?
The Apgar score. We all grew up with it as the first test administered to a newborn. Respect to pediatric anesthesiologist Virgnia Apgar for developing this first tool for evaluating the health of a newborn making the transition to life outside the womb. Respect also for being the first professor of medicine at The College of Physicians & Surgeons.
