This Just In – We cannot do this alone.
This year, I have a more meaningful list of things for which I am deeply grateful as I get ready for turkey and pie.
First, I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the stars aligning throughout the year to give me one more Thanksgiving with my husband Rick, and (hopefully) many more to come.
Thanks to quick thinking on the part of his tennis buddies and the speedy assessment of his cardiologist in UNC’s Emergency Department, his April heart attack was treated with a cardiac catheterization procedure, placing a stent in his 100% blocked artery. This changed some things in our lives, but mainly, it extended his life.
It’s hard to explain the miracle of having heart surgery that’s done through a tiny incision in your wrist, tiny wires traveling into the heart, carrying a stent, guided by Xray. I’ve often thought that I would have enjoyed being in the meeting where someone first pitched that idea, though. “It’s heart surgery, but in your wrist! All you need afterwards is a band-aid.”
It wasn’t pitched in a meeting, actually. In 1929, under only local anesthesia, 25-year-old Dr. Werner Forssmann introduced a ureteral catheter into his arm, accessing his own right atrium while doing his surgical training at Eberswalde, Germany.
Dr. Forssmann died of heart failure at 74, just one year younger than my husband whose life he indirectly saved.
During World War II, he served as a medical officer. Dr. Forssmann was a member of the Nazi party for more than a decade. He was captured and spent some time as a POW. After the war ended, he shared a Nobel Prize in Medicine and he and his wife had six children together as he served his community as a urologist.
Since my father-in-law spent a couple of years in Europe helping to win a war against the Nazis in general and a narcissistic madman in particular, it’s complicated to say so, but I’m grateful to Dr. Forssmann for the daring experiment he conducted on himself that gave the world a medical procedure that extended the life of both my husband and (30 years ago) his Nazi-fighting father, but also my older brother, last year.
In the coming election cycle as we all sort out what to do with our own narcissistic authoritarian candidate and his followers. I am most grateful for our courts and the strength of the judiciary thus far in many cases (criminal and civil) vs. Donald Trump.
Many of us feel frustration at the sloth-like pace of these prosecutions, but next year will not feel that way. We have to play long ball. This year may be 45’s last non-institutional turkey dinner. If he is convicted and jailed next year, we have to make damn sure it’s done with credibility that will withstand the strictest legal scrutiny and the unsparing examination of history.
I am deeply grateful to the WCHL family and their support which has sustained me this year on many levels. As 97.9 The Hill is moving to its new home this week, I have to admit I have no idea how (from a technological standpoint) they accomplish this so seamlessly. I’m just grateful that somebody over there has figured it out … kind of like that cardiac cath.
We are all grateful for our readers and listeners who keep us moving forward. How lucky we are to have you. Oh yes, and … Go Heels! Beat State!
Jean Bolduc is a freelance writer and the host of the Weekend Watercooler on 97.9 The Hill. She is the author of “African Americans of Durham & Orange Counties: An Oral History” (History Press, 2016) and has served on Orange County’s Human Relations Commission, The Alliance of AIDS Services-Carolina, the Orange County Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, and the Orange County Schools’ Equity Task Force. She was a featured columnist and reporter for the Chapel Hill Herald and the News & Observer.
Readers can reach Jean via email – jean@penandinc.com and via Twitter @JeanBolduc
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