Dennis McCarthy: US needs to visit this recovery room
By Dennis McCarthy, Columnist | DAILY NEWS LOS ANGELES
"I walked into the recovery room that morning, and read the last name on the chart. I just about fell over. That's when I knew this was something special, a very dramatic moment, considering what we're dealing with in the world right now."
— Cedars-Sinai Medical Center transplant surgeon Dr. Louis Cohen.
What we were dealing with in the world nine years ago when Dr. Cohen said these words shortly after 9-11 was hate and fear.
It had taken over the country, but not a surgery room at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
Cohen, a Jewish surgeon, and Dr. Gerhard Fuchs, a German, had just completed a kidney transplant of a Muslim woman and an African-American Christian man.
Fuchs removed a kidney from Patricia Abdullah, and Cohen, a few yards away, transplanted the organ into the body of Mike Jones.
A German, a Jew, a Muslim and a Christian in the same room giving life, not taking it. It was a morality play for difficult times, I wrote at the time. It still is.
Abdullah, who lived in Sherman Oaks and converted to the Muslim faith 25 years ago, said after the surgery she hoped "it could become a sign of hope and healing for the future."
We all know it didn't. Unfortunately, hate and fear is still beating the hell out of hope and healing every day of the week in this country.
"Does everybody have such a short memory?" Abdullah asked Friday from her office at the University of Cincinnati where she teaches English.
"The first house I lived in was in Venice, California, in the middle of a Japanese farming community," she said.
"Most of our neighbors had just gotten their property back after returning from ... (the Japanese-American internment camp) Manzanar.
"Remember what was done to Japanese Americans because of hate and fear in this country, and what a big mistake that was?" she asked.
"I still think that if anyone uses race, ethnicity or religion as the reason for a terrorist act of any kind, it's bogus," she said. "As bogus as the world being flat."
Jones still lives in Los Angeles and spends much of his time speaking to groups and individuals on behalf of Donate Life California, an organ and tissue procurement and education center.
The kidney Abdullah gave him nine years ago is still healthy and strong. Keeping him alive.
She didn't have to give it to him. They weren't related in any way or close friends. They were in a four-day, self-development seminar together, that's all.
During a break, Jones told the others in a moment of candor that he had been on dialysis for five years and needed a kidney transplant soon because time was running out.
Abdullah suggested to the class after the break that they make finding a kidney donor for Jones a class project. Everyone readily agreed.
When the four-day seminar ended, most of the class moved on to an advanced 16-week course. A donor had still not been found.
That's when Abdullah stepped forward with an offer that shocked the class. It came during an exercise in which the students were learning how to successfully make unreasonable requests of another person.
Abdullah told Mike she was O-positive, the same as him. He just looked at her, not getting it, so she repeated herself.
"He still didn't get what I was trying to say, so I said, `Go ahead, Mike, make an unreasonable request of me,"' Abdullah said.
"Will you give me one of your kidneys?" he asked.
"Yes," Abdullah replied.
The class broke out in cheers as the Muslim woman and the Christian man hugged.
"I'm a Baptist and she's a Muslim, but prayers are prayers," Mike told me soon after the transplant.
"Even though we practice different religions, we're all God's children."
Nothing's changed, he said Friday. A radical element of terrorists is still holding the whole Muslim faith hostage.
"Our anger and hate is totally misdirected," he said.
People's jaws still drop when he tells them about the Muslim kidney that's been keeping him alive since shortly after 9-11.
"It's another side of the story," Jones says. "A positive side."
— Cedars-Sinai Medical Center transplant surgeon Dr. Louis Cohen.
What we were dealing with in the world nine years ago when Dr. Cohen said these words shortly after 9-11 was hate and fear.
It had taken over the country, but not a surgery room at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
Cohen, a Jewish surgeon, and Dr. Gerhard Fuchs, a German, had just completed a kidney transplant of a Muslim woman and an African-American Christian man.
Fuchs removed a kidney from Patricia Abdullah, and Cohen, a few yards away, transplanted the organ into the body of Mike Jones.
A German, a Jew, a Muslim and a Christian in the same room giving life, not taking it. It was a morality play for difficult times, I wrote at the time. It still is.
Abdullah, who lived in Sherman Oaks and converted to the Muslim faith 25 years ago, said after the surgery she hoped "it could become a sign of hope and healing for the future."
We all know it didn't. Unfortunately, hate and fear is still beating the hell out of hope and healing every day of the week in this country.
"Does everybody have such a short memory?" Abdullah asked Friday from her office at the University of Cincinnati where she teaches English.
"The first house I lived in was in Venice, California, in the middle of a Japanese farming community," she said.
"Most of our neighbors had just gotten their property back after returning from ... (the Japanese-American internment camp) Manzanar.
"Remember what was done to Japanese Americans because of hate and fear in this country, and what a big mistake that was?" she asked.
"I still think that if anyone uses race, ethnicity or religion as the reason for a terrorist act of any kind, it's bogus," she said. "As bogus as the world being flat."
Jones still lives in Los Angeles and spends much of his time speaking to groups and individuals on behalf of Donate Life California, an organ and tissue procurement and education center.
The kidney Abdullah gave him nine years ago is still healthy and strong. Keeping him alive.
She didn't have to give it to him. They weren't related in any way or close friends. They were in a four-day, self-development seminar together, that's all.
During a break, Jones told the others in a moment of candor that he had been on dialysis for five years and needed a kidney transplant soon because time was running out.
Abdullah suggested to the class after the break that they make finding a kidney donor for Jones a class project. Everyone readily agreed.
When the four-day seminar ended, most of the class moved on to an advanced 16-week course. A donor had still not been found.
That's when Abdullah stepped forward with an offer that shocked the class. It came during an exercise in which the students were learning how to successfully make unreasonable requests of another person.
Abdullah told Mike she was O-positive, the same as him. He just looked at her, not getting it, so she repeated herself.
"He still didn't get what I was trying to say, so I said, `Go ahead, Mike, make an unreasonable request of me,"' Abdullah said.
"Will you give me one of your kidneys?" he asked.
"Yes," Abdullah replied.
The class broke out in cheers as the Muslim woman and the Christian man hugged.
"I'm a Baptist and she's a Muslim, but prayers are prayers," Mike told me soon after the transplant.
"Even though we practice different religions, we're all God's children."
Nothing's changed, he said Friday. A radical element of terrorists is still holding the whole Muslim faith hostage.
"Our anger and hate is totally misdirected," he said.
People's jaws still drop when he tells them about the Muslim kidney that's been keeping him alive since shortly after 9-11.
"It's another side of the story," Jones says. "A positive side."
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