Angels

I know I said I thought my previous post would most likely be the last one before Christmas, but I heard something today that I just have to share. You know how sometimes you can get caught up in your own problems, be they big or small…think that life is going poorly or is really stinking at the moment - you hate your job, your spouse is getting on your very last nerve, your car broke down, bounced a check, ect. Then some thing happens that will put life in perspective. Make you realize that whatever you think your problems may be are really pretty small potatoes compared to what others are dealing with. This is one of those enlightening moments.

I walked into an office at work this afternoon to find 2 coworkers in conversation. Needing to ask a question of one of them, I waited patiently for them to finish. They were talking about liver transplants. The lady – our company nurse - was speaking about a transplant that had taken place the end of October, that the insurance company refused to pay for the operation ect. Then it occurred to me that the person she was talking about who underwent the transplant was her son. He’s 30. Her 30 year old son just had a liver transplant. After I picked my jaw up off the ground, I asked her if she was indeed talking about her kid; she said yes and started the story over…telling us about how they had found out he was in dire need of a transplant, how they would drive to SLC after being put on the transplant list in hope of a liver becoming available, how they were about to leave one evening when the doctors came in to ask them to “hang out for a little while longer” then telling them a donor had been found. They operated the very next morning; the operation took well over 12 hours. And how while she was in the waiting room during this time that she received a phone call from a relative to tell her that her father had just passed away. Operation was a success; kid is doing wonderfully well. The insurance company refused to pay for the operation, sighting several reasons (one of which – and by far the most ridiculous, asinine thing I have ever heard - was that the mother and father were divorced), refuse to pay for the antirejection meds this kid will have to take every day for the rest of his life, but is paying for his physical therapy (huh??) In the last couple weeks, the woman has received word from the doctors that performed the operation that they were DONATING their services…no payment needed. This operation costs well over $450K, and the whole transplant team – all 14 (I think that was how many people she said?) are donating their time. In addition to that, the donor’s family paid whatever fee it is to get put on the transplant list (I had no idea you had to pay to get on this…I need to ask some questions about that) on top of donating their loved one’s liver.

Everything in my life that I was mad about or worried about has been reduced to the trivial things they are. They’re not life and death and in the grand scheme of things, they don’t matter. Hearing about acts of kindness and compassion like those extended to my coworker and her son really restores my faith in humanity. And reminds me that there are angels among us and there is a higher power that we all answer to who works miracles everyday in ways we never know.