##Going Up. It seems simple enough, right? Up.
Yet, this little two-letter word keeps mothers, stock brokers and politicians up at night.
Is her temperature going up? Is the market value going up? Are my ratings going up?
Worrying about direction isn’t going to move me. Moving myself in that direction will keep me from worrying.
##Mind the gap.
The gap is what exists between the ideal and the real. It can be observed; it can be ignored. However, it exists nevertheless.
We mind the gap every time we take a step between the two. A simple word to lift someone’s spirit, a gesture of kindness to a stranger, a comforting word to a friend.
In these moments, we not only mind the gap, we bridge the gap.
The super typhoon didn’t directly hit Cebu City, instead its eye passed over the North of Cebu island. While I am thankful for it not hitting us directly, my heart goes out to those that were affected: many are without shelter in Cebu City, those in the North of Cebu are worse, the earthquake victims in Bohol haven’t had shelter since Oct 15 - only tents, and the islands of Leyte and Samar who were the first landfall points for the storm saw the massive, unrestrained force of a category 5 storm. There isn’t a lot of information at the moment as power and telco lines are down and/or overwhelmed. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers and directly donate to relief organizations. On a side note: Glory Reborn was a small shelter yesterday with many families in the neighborhood coming in for safety as the storm hit. We will continue to assist those in surrounding communities and islands as we recover from the series of natural disasters, if you feel inclined to help us, you can donate at https://gloryreborn.org
My phone rings. Its Hilary. I answer it, Hey hun, whats up?
“David, how much money do we have in the bank?” she says frantically.
“I dont know off hand, Ill have to checkWhy?” I reply, slightly nervous about what my wife has planned to spend our money on.
She blurts out I hate the public hospital! Do you remember that patient that we referred to them on the 6th? Yes. I say, just to keep the conversation going. Well do you know what they did? They sent her home! She needs to be induced or her baby is going to die! I am silent, so she continues. She came back to the clinic, we checked the heart beat and we sent her back to the public hospital. Again she was not accepted. She then went to the second public hospital. They sent her with a note back to the first public hospital. Doc was informed that we were sending her back again as she is out of our scope and requires hospital care, and do you know what they did?
I know the answer already, this is not a new situation for us to be in, but to keep the flow moving, I reply No, what? She yells They sent her back to us again! Three times they have sent her back! Almost two weeks past her due date with a terrible fetal heart beat and no signs of labor. They said they cant do anything because the baby is fine, she is not in labor and they are full. They told the patient that if she wants to be induced we should take her to a private hospital instead! I reply Thats terrible.
On September 12th, 6 days after the patient was originally referred to the hospital, the patient came back to the clinic in tears, worried about her baby. The babys vital signs were troublesome on the 6th, and now they are much worse. Immediate action has to be taken or this baby will die. Even if we do take action, there is a chance that the baby will still not make it.
“David, the baby will die if we dont do something. Can we afford to put her in the private hospital?”
Life is filled with choices. I make choices everyday. I choose what shirt to wear with what pants (Im colorblind so this choice can be dreadful at times). I choose if I have time for breakfast or if I can only afford the time to grab a granola bar and run out the door. I choose what projects I will work on: will I focus on my startup or will I focus on our charity. I also make choices about peoples lives. Not just their lives as in this will effect them. I mean that I choose if they will live or die. Ive been choosing these type of things for 10 years now. I thought it would get easier over time, or maybe I wouldnt have to face these choices anymore it hasnt gotten easier and I am still choosing.
“Do what you need to do.” “Yes, lets save a life today!” “Do we really have a choice? Admit the patient.” “Okay, Ill figure out a way to cover it.” “We really dont have any budget right now.” “I am sorry but we cant right now, we dont have the money.” these are some of my answers to this question throughout the years. These choices are etched into my memory, and I can recall all of the situations and most especially the outcomes that we lost. I said yes to baby James, but in spite of that we lost him. I said no to one young boy and then yes a few days later when we had funds and we lost him. I said yes to sweet baby Hannah and we lost her a few days later. In an ideal situation we would save them all, and hopefully no one would have to make the hard choice, rather the obvious choice that every one deserves the chance of life.
I took a deep breath, knowing full well the balance of Glory Reborns bank accounts wouldnt cover all of the next months operating costs and this procedure. In a hurried exhale as if I didnt get it out quickly I would change my mind I stated: Yes, just do it. Hilary hung up the phone, forgetting to even say bye as she was in the Save A Life Zone. I stared blankly at the pixels on my phones screen wondering about these choices of life.
A couple of hours later I called Hilary to check on the outcome. The mom had to undergo an emergency C-Section and the babys vitals were not well, so he was admitting into the Neonatal ICU. I would be lying if I said that this news didnt make my stomach drop as I worried about how much this was going to cost, but how can I put a cost on the value of a life? What if it were my wife and baby in this situation and their lives depending on someone making a similar choice?
I hope that everyone faced with this choice would choose life. Both the mom and baby are doing well as of today September 13th. We hope that this amazing baby boy will be out of NICU tonight and that they will be discharged from the hospital in a few days. During the C-Section we found out that the baby had 3 tight cord coils around his leg and very minimal fluid inside the water bag. These were the factors causing the problems with the heartbeat that we saw on the monitor days before. In this case, I made a choice in spite of the resources. The family has raised around $400 to cover some of the cost, which is truly amazing! By donating to this situation, even small amounts, you will make a difference! And Id ask if you could choose to save a life with us today?
If you feel inclined to donate to Glory Reborn (a 501(c)(3) non-profit), you can do so here: https://symph.wufoo.com/forms/donate-to-glory-reborn/
I was recently asked to infer my knowledge of a specific situation into a general topic. It made me think about generalization, you know generally speaking.
Generalizations are generally good, but they are never great. Details and specifics are so valuable to understanding and specifically in a startup, it’s the details that we should be paying attention too.
I’ve also noticed that it is easy to give general advice (or criticism), but being more specific in our advice (or criticism) takes an investment. Time must be invested to be able to clearly give specific input.
I value this type of input more than generalizations, and I am going to do my best to give feedback that is as specific as possible.