Amazing YOU!

When I think about all you and CRUDEM have accomplished this year at Hôpital Sacré Coeur, I am truly amazed. What a significant difference you have made! I saw your many achievements firsthand a few weeks ago while volunteering as a surgeon.

Of course the new Notre Dame Outpatient Clinic is stunning. Your generosity built an impressive, modern medical facility, the likes of which Haiti rarely sees. What struck me the most though was seeing the huge crowd of people pouring into the clinic and waiting patiently outside for their chance to be seen and treated.

I could go on and tell you about the widespread vaccination program that protects children from the deadly tetanus virus. You accomplished that feat. Or, I could mention the new up and running dental clinic, the bustling new Emergency Department and the impressive life-saving radiology program that affords Hôpital Sacré Coeur medical staff, faced with complex cases, an almost instantaneous diagnosis and consultation from U.S. experts. Your contributions brought all these dreams into reality.

I could also point out the almost 1,500 women who birthed their babies in a safe environment, instead of on the dirt floor of a bamboo hut. I could talk about the over 150,000 lab and diagnostic tests taken at the hospital or the over 2,000 surgeries performed. You made all those events possible through your contributions.

Your bucket list of tangible achievements at Hôpital Sacré Coeur this year features a long line of check marks.

But that is not the conversation I want to have with you. There is something much more important I want to tell you…

But first, here’s what I want you to do during this season of gratitude and giving: take a few quiet moments and look at these pictures:
    
Look deeply into the eyes of each man, woman and child. They are just like you. They nurture all the same basic dreams you have — caring for their families, ensuring their children have a better future, improving their community and country. They share similar human strengths, frailties and fears that you and I claim.

Look again at the pictures and know: You Saved Their Lives.

You and I both know what it is to lose a beloved family member. You and I know the shock that accompanies the dreaded parting, the continuing ache of absence and ended memory building. When a Haitian mother watches her child die or a man kisses his wife for the very last time, their feeling of grief and anguish is the same horrible feeling you and I have in similar situations.

If you or I had the chance to stop or postpone the death of a loved one, we would take it in a nanosecond. There is no limit to what we wouldn’t do to change the outcome.

Well that is exactly the gift you give.

Your donations and support, spare or drastically postpone the day when the family of a Hôpital Sacré Coeur patient faces the all encompassing grief of the death of a loved one.

What would such a gift have meant to you?

I know what it would mean to me. So much so, that this is what I really want to tell you:

Out of all the considerable, impressive achievements your donations have made at Hôpital Sacré Coeur this year; the fact that you saved the lives of not just one, but tens of thousands of people — my friends, my adopted family — is the one achievement of yours that I treasure above all else.

With gratitude,
David G. Butler, M.D.
Chairman

P.S. The doors never close on Hôpital Sacré Coeur. The patients continue to come in search of quality healthcare. Those doors stay open only with your generous support. Send your gift, postmarked December 31 or before, to qualify for a 2014 tax-deduction. Remember: 100% of your donation goes directly to patient care programs.