Shout-Out To Some Special Doctors And Nurses

This Shout-Out goes out to the good doctors and nurses at Allegheny General Hospital who took care of Robert Bowers, who last Saturday killed 11 and injured nine people at the Tree Of Life synagogue in the Squirrel Hill section of Pittsburgh.  I speak specifically of the Jewish doctors and nurses who cared for Bowers in such a professional manner despite what had to be some very difficult circumstances and personal feelings.

Said AGH President Jeffrey Cohen, who visited Bowers in his hospital room, “Isn’t it ironic that somebody who is yelling in the ambulance and in the hospital, ‘I want to kill all the Jews,’ is taken care of by a Jewish nurse and there’s a Jewish hospital president that comes in to check on him afterwards?”

"We’re here to take care of sick people, we’re not here to judge you,” Cohen said in an interview with WTAE, Pittsburgh's ABC affiliate.  “We’re here to take care of people that need our help.”

A special Shout-Out within a Shout-Out to Ari Mahler, RN, who wrote a Facebook post about being Bowers' nurse, which has been shared, as of this writing, more than 128,000 times.  In it, Mahler said in part, "The fact that I did my job, a job which requires compassion and empathy over everything, is newsworthy to people because I’m Jewish. Even more so because my dad’s a Rabbi. To be honest, I didn't see evil when I looked into Robert Bower's eyes. I saw something else. I can’t go into details of our interactions because of HIPAA. I can tell you that as his nurse, or anyone's nurse, my care is given through kindness, my actions are measured with empathy, and regardless of the person you may be when you're not in my care, each breath you take is more beautiful than the last when you're lying on my stretcher. This was the same Robert Bowers that just committed mass homicide. The Robert Bowers who instilled panic in my heart worrying my parents were two of his 11 victims less than an hour before his arrival. I’m sure he had no idea I was Jewish. Why thank a Jewish nurse, when 15 minutes beforehand, you’d shoot me in the head with no remorse? I didn’t say a word to him about my religion. I chose not to say anything to him the entire time. I wanted him to feel compassion. I chose to show him empathy. I felt that the best way to honor his victims was for a Jew to prove him wrong. Besides, if he finds out I’m Jewish, does it really matter? The better question is, what does it mean to you? Love. That’s why I did it. Love as an action is more powerful than words, and love in the face of evil gives others hope. It demonstrates humanity. It reaffirms why we’re all here. The meaning of life is to give meaning to life, and love is the ultimate force that connects all living beings. I could care less what Robert Bowers thinks, but you, the person reading this, love is the only message I wish instill in you. If my actions mean anything, love means everything..."

Very few people that I am acquainted with seem to understand that love is an action verb.

To me, that young man deserves a place alongside Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.  A true inspiration.

Ari, please know this, and I speak to you as the daughter of a nurse, and one who comes from a "medical" family, with two doctors, two nurses, and an EMT-turned-Medical-Assistant: the fact that you did your job with the heart-attitude that you did is newsworthy, not because you are Jewish, but because that heart-attitude is beyond rare.  And beyond admirable.  May you be blessed.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/10/robert-bowers-jewish-doctors-nurses-pittsburgh-synagogue-shooting.html

https://m.facebook.com/ari.mahler/posts/10218102032530177