Branos Doc in Ethiopia Rick Hodes
The Israel Connetion
The Doc who sent Brano
Video of Ric Hodes in Ethiopia
If his patients require sophisticated medication, he hunts it down. He arranges free surgeries abroad. He moves kids who need special care into his own modest home (three bedrooms inside, three in an outbuilding) or another that he rents nearby. "Whenever half a mattress is free," he says, "I take in someone new." Some are abandoned kids who live on the streets; others come from families who can't feed them. In addition to providing medical treatment, he oversees the children's education, lining up donors to pay for both.
Most striking of all, Hodes, who is single, has adopted five Ethiopian children, the maximum allowed. He started in 2001 to put two orphans—Semegn, now 19, and Dejene, 15—on his insurance plan so they could have surgery in Texas. "It was kind of a scary decision, so I thought about it for a few days," Hodes recalls. "The answer that came to me was, God is offering you an opportunity to help these boys. Don't say no."
A specialist in cancer, heart disease, and spinal conditions, Hodes first went to Ethiopia as a relief worker during the 1984 famine. He returned there on a Fulbright fellowship and in 1990 was hired by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), a humanitarian group, as medical director for the country, overseeing the health of Ethiopian Jews who planned to immigrate to Israel. He discovered Mother Teresa's Mission while searching for a teenager he'd been treating for heart disease. When the boy disappeared from the hospital because he couldn't pay, Hodes tracked him down at the mission. Hodes became a volunteer and was soon spending as much time there as at his salaried job.
Until two years ago, he financed his mission work out of his paycheck or by begging aid wherever he could find it. Now the JDC helps with fund-raising, but Hodes still digs into his own pocket when a patient needs bus fare or a meal. He buys shoe polish for boys who support themselves by shining shoes. He pays the rent for a widow whose daughter is undergoing multiple spine surgeries.
"Rick could have done very well for himself practicing in the United States, but he chose to do something so much harder," says Irving Fish, MD, director of pediatric neurology at New York University Medical School, who visited the mission recently. "He's totally selfless. I've really never met anyone like him."
Hodes does without comforts most Americans take for granted, like hot water and reliable electricity. He has all but given up on finding a partner with whom to share his life and work. But to him, these aren't sacrifices. To quote his favorite passage from the Talmud, an ancient book of Jewish law: "Saving one life is like saving an entire world."
Readers Digest on Doc Rick Hodes
Tuesday Night
Time is 9.40pm and I am in the RMH and feeling really happy and settled tonight. Berhanu is sleeping as I left PICU.
From The Ground in Ethiopia.....
Please give me your mailing address, I will burn you a CD and mail it to you.
In short, I am based at a Catholic facility xxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxx xxx
though the nuns don't like to have that name in print) and I work in 3
areas: heart disease (congenital and rheumatic), spine disease (TB of
the spine and severe scoliosis), and I treat kids for cancer. People
come from all over the country to be treated by me.
In the past few years, I have sent 50 spine patients overseas for
surgery, 24 heart patients, and treated over 20 cancer patients.
Besides my normal, very busy clinic which is completely free.
My mom lives in Laguna Niguel, and I have a brother in Laguna Beach.
Internet here is very slow.
Getting containers cleared from customs here is almost impossible.
I am employed by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, www.jdc.org
a 95 year old NGO based in NYC which passes 100% of donations on to
us. It is very well run and highly respected, no problem with the tax
part. And though I am a Jew (based in a Catholic mission), the
patients are all religions and ethnicities. My program was recently
examined very closely by a team from the Ministry of Health here, who
gave us a fantastic evaluation.
I see my role here as helping people that nobody else is interested
in. You can see some pics on the Reader's Digest website, just type
Hodes into the search engine.
Contributions can be made by check (AJJDC, 711 3rd Ave, 10th floor,
NY, NY 10017, att: Will Recant - checks should be marked "for
Ethiopian project"), or via the JDC website.
The website you cite is blocked here, i will be happy to see it next
time I'm in the USA.
My life is financially poor, otherwise rich, quite chaotic and
stressful, but ultimately very happy.
Berhanu has an uncle in the village but he has not called me. Nobody
has asked for any pics. Social worker? It' only me!
thanks.
rick
Operation Complete Bran In ICU
Angels at work- Op begins 7.30am
Its 5.30 am and it time for Branahue to have his last part of surgery.
The Hospital is a buzz with constant activity and action.Bran. is aware of whats happening -the nurse on our floor who speaks Ahmeric has explained all that is to be done.
He is aware he is heading for another bout of sever pain as the surgeons move the spine into its final location and secure the final titanium steelwork to straighten his spine.The process involves cutting some ribs out and removing some segments from the ribs to form a new rib cage.
At time of typing I am in the Cafe in the basement of the building awaiting a call from the doctors .
I am amazed at the quantity of children who are in surgery,The pre op area was like a space station preparing all of the children with tubes monitors and sensors......so many Doctors and nurses working on Children simultaneously.
Dr Skaggs came and asked me if I had any questions - I said yes can I have a bit of the temporary steelwork in Brans back after the final operation- he said it may be a bio Hazard but he would get it cleared and then would give me a titanium rod that has been in his back for the last week...
I believe these men are doing the work of God.For some they are God - but for me they simply are the hands of the master surgeon.
Why does God not just speak the healing words and repair the children the way Jesus is documented in Jewish and Roman History.
I just don;t know -but I do know we have a responsibility to do all we can for humanity ....The ways,the timing of God will one day be clear..........amidst all this pain and agony .it's hard.
Branhue Heptu ...........the meekest man I have ever met........so helpless yet receiving so much help.
Dear God , please heal this child may he stand Strong stand tall and enjoy the wealth of a healthy life. God I am your child so blessed .please share the blessing with Bran .make him whole.
Amen and amen.
Your pal
jim