Denver Christian Docs

By the same author as the post below. Men get "hooked" on porn just like people do on drugs and they use the same excuses. "I can quit any time I want." "Nobody is getting hurt." It destroys our ability to have relationships with real people, though. Good article.

Hey, High Rollers, come to Las Vegas to do the Saline Solution workshop. I did it here in Denver with some of our local brethren and it was terrific. Here are some details:

CMDA members,
Greetings. Hope all is well in your practice and home.

I am working with some members in hosting a Saline Solution Conference on May 20 here in Las Vegas. I need to see who might be interested in attending. Members from out of town could stay at local homes. Since it is a one day event some maybe able to fly in and out on the same day. We welcome the folks from Denver CMDA.

The cost would be:
MD/DO/DDS- $85
Allied health - $60
Students- $25
Please prayerfully consider attending and inviting some of your staff. I attended this conference and it had an unparalleled impact on my practice.


Blessings,
Dr. Barbara A. Holck
151 Yerba Santa St
Henderson, NV 89015
702-564-3383

From Southern California. The CMDA Students now have a home. Come take a look. Also if you are reading this from afar, send your student site to your regional director and they will get it linked up. The western regional director is Michael McLaughlin.

This came over a First Things discussion group and I thought it was an interesting read. It's yet another approach, saying that if you're smart you'll reserve sex for marriage.

My daughter wrote a chilling paper on the Rwanda genocide of the last decade. The Rwandans were more efficient than the Nazis, killing about 800,000 of their fellows in a few weeks. Now they have to recover their country and their soul. (DenverDocDaughter and I went to see Hotel Rwanda and found it riveting.)

Some of our local docs just got back from there and here is their report:

We are consultants to the Rwandan Ministry of Health on community health policy and strategy for the future; will be home in Mid March, and want to keep our promise to host, in Genesee, an informal evening for debriefing. We have had an opportunity to see all four borders of this tiny country where the maternal mortality rates are among the highest in Africa, and where the infant mortality rate is still above 100 per 1000 live births per year.

Because they fear HIV, many of the old granny midwives have quit doing home deliveries and instead accompany their clients to the health centers. We wonder how soon the centers will be overwhelmed! There are very few docs in the rural areas, and those who are there depend heavily on nurses or they too would be overwhelmed. Happily there are over 12,000 village volunteers for health, so that children are vaccinated and most of them are under nutrition surveillance. It is at this level that Rwanda is asking us to help plan next steps. At the medical school, they are looking for professors who would come and be in charge of specialty training, something that is only beginning.

This country is still recovering from the genocide of 1994. It is sad to see the mass graves everywhere. Some of the perpetrators (including doctors and engineers) were arrested immediately and are just now getting out of prison. Here, the church is playing an important healing role as are physicians like one we met last night, who is part of the reconciliation council. Their plan is to put such men now leaving prison into camps near their home villages at first. There, members of the village come and meet with them, and they may ask to see and ask forgiveness of families who suffered from their crimes. The doctor told us that at first there is a lot of fear on everyside. The prisoners fear the villagers and the villagers fear the prisoners. With the help of local pastors, there is open discussion. Prisoners ask to work in the fields nearby, and little by ittle healing may begin. The stories he told us are beyond comprehension, but we rejoice that there is a healing process, and that God is blessing it.

There are many widows, and their plight is extremely difficult. One church related group is offering American churches the opportunity to "adopt" a family that has lost a mother or father, to help them for three years financially. Meantime, missionaries work with the families to teach them skills that will help them survive economically.

We ask your prayers that we might fulfill our assignment in good order.

Dr's Warren and Gretchen Berggren

GIVE A GIFT OF TIME TO THOSE IN NEED

World Vision is a Christian relief and development organization dedicated to helping children and their communities worldwide reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty. We serve the world's poor— regardless of a person's religion, race, ethnicity, or gender.

The medical products sorting program at World Vision was developed to meet the basic health care needs of the poor. Donated medical products are sorted by medically trained volunteers into categories that enable regional hospitals, district health centers and field health posts to fully utilize each product and thus have a greater impact on children and communities around the world.

WE NEED YOUR HELP
Nurses, Doctors, or anyone with a heart and a little extra time to assist World Vision’s medical program. The medical program sorting process is easy to learn and in just a few hours you can be investing in the health of someone around the world. You can make an impact in a one-time opportunity or repeat sessions. We are open for volunteers Monday through Friday 9-5 and Saturdays 9-12.


Please contact:
Kristin Tweardy-- Volunteer and Intern Coordinator
World Vision
11000 E. 40th Avenue
Denver, CO. 80239
Phone 720.374.0658 ext. 7418
Email ktweardy at worldvision dot org

The California group sends us this website on their resident's group. Heading their way? Look them up!

The problem with Christianity is not that it has been tried and found wanting, but that it has been found difficult, and left untried. - G.K. CHESTERTON -

THOMAS SYDENHAM, 1642-1689, OF SYDENHAM’S CHOREA AND FATHER OF MODERN MEDICINE
It becomes every man who purposes to give himself to the care of other, seriously to consider the four following things:
First, that he must one day give an account to the Supreme Judge of all the lives entrusted to his care.
Secondly,that all his skill, and knowledge, and energy as they have been given him by God, so they should be exercised for His glory, and the good of mankind, and not for mere gain or ambition.
Thirdly,and not more beautifully than truly, let him reflect that he has undertaken the care of no mean creature, for, in order that he may estimate the value, the greatness of the human race, the only begotten son of God became himself a man, and thus ennobled it with His divine dignity, and far more than this, died to redeem it.
And fourthly,that the doctor being himself a mortal man, should be diligent and tender in relieving his suffering patients, inasmuch as he himself must one day be a sufferer likewise.

Here is a website for the American Scientific Affiliation, a group of believing scientists. They had a meeting in Boulder a couple of weeks ago. Take a look, seems like a good bunch to me.

Cardinal Schonborn writes a piece in First Things (a magazine John Patrick and I highly recommend) on science and faith. He argues that the order in the universe speaks to a designer in a novel way.

Another article in First Things by Michael Behe (author of Darwin's Black Box) covers similar ground. This is an interesting area to me since I began this journey as an agnostic/atheist scientist who woke up one day.

Oh, and come to the Small's for Gino Geraci on Friday night this week at 7. Send me a note at jmsmall at unipathllc dot com for more info.

The Pew Research Center does a survey periodically about who is happy in the United States. Results are very interesting. The concluding paragraph states:

That analysis shows that the most robust correlations of all those described in this report are health, income, church attendance, being married and, yes, being a Republican.

So, CMDA members, keep on keeping on!

This is a wonderful story. Read at your own risk and have Kleenex handy, even if you're a guy who never tears up.

June 14 to 18, 2006 CMDA National Convention, Irvine, CA We’re headed “Back to the Future” June 14 - 18 at the Hyatt Regency in beautiful Irvine, California, looking back at where we’ve been and looking forward to an exciting future ahead. Birthday plans are underway as we prepare to celebrate the 75 fruitful years of changing hearts in healthcare during our National Convention. Speakers include Dr. John Lloyd Ogilvie, Rev. Ray Comfort, Teresa Collett, Dr. Stan Cobb, Side by Side Ministry and Rev. Bert Jones. Click here for more information and registration!

This site is after Mortimer Adler, and lists 102 great ideas as well as a bunch of great books that are available free on-line. DenverDocDaughter2 is a Drama Major at Tulane, playing Medea this year, and Medea is available at the site. So when you're at a meeting in, say, Tucson and it's after dinner and you're geeking away posting stuff to a CMDA blog, you can expand your mind instead of playing Sudoku.

Take a look at this use for Stem Cells. Pigs that glow in the dark. We need to quickly expand this to poultry, so we can have Green Eggs and Ham!

One of our local docs sends me this note:

I remain active as a Chaplain at the Hospice of St. John and became involved in the group "Citizens & Physicians Concerned About Palliative Care" three years ago. When Ken Salazar was our Attorney General we interviewed him and he was very eager to promote this project in response to interference that has grown nationwide creating reluctance for many physicians to safely prescribe appropriate medications for end-of-life care, according to the highest standards established by Hospice and Palliative Care centers nationally.

You are doubless aware of this bill and I would like you to discuss this material with your colleagues for their opinions and advice. Here is info on the status of the bill. [Senate Bill 06-102] The attachments include a copy of the bill, the latest support letter prepared by our lobbyist, Edie Busam, and a tally of the Legislators.
Last week Edie got the nod from Focus On The Family, which was forwarded to the El Paso County Medical Society. The Colorado Council of Churches will also support. In view of the Supreme Court's recent ruling on the Oregon Death With Dignity law, this bill is quite timely, promoting the ethical support for appropriate end-of-life care. We think this will actually assure people that they DO NOT have to consider physician-assisted death. This could actually set a national precedent in providing the best of end-of-life care with the major focus on ethically grounded Palliative and Hospice Care.

Share this data with anyone and let me know your toughts. Thanks for taking the time to study it.

Send me reponses, or to jimnjan_1999 at yahoo dot com who sent this to me.

Ed note: It has always seemed to me that our profession's tendency to abandon patients who don't have any more effective treatments, leads directly to the call for assisted suicide. Who wants to die alone and in pain?

I'm not an expert or a lawyer but I do support efforts to make end-of-life care truly caring. Anything that would in fact take the wind out of the sails of the suicide proponents can't be all bad!

We just got back from our Panama Mission trip. God blessed our trip and our efforts to help the poor people in the Chepo area. Our eye surgery team was able to perform 39 cataract surgeries, 117 pterygium removals, and the medical team helped over 1800 people with their health problems and reading glasses. Our construction team helped renovate a place for a family to live so that they didn't need to move into a shack....and the family was incredibly grateful.

I had lunch with my pastor who has just visited Alternatives Pregnancy Centers. He told me they got ultrasound machines with the help of a grant, and that 80% of women who see the ultrasounds opt out of abortion. Sounds like a good group. They have four centers around Denver. Take a look!