My heroes in healthcare

I understand many have expressed concern about my health.  I was seriously ill, but thanks to two doctors, Dra. Ruth Divinagracia and Dr. Fabio Enrique Posas, I am back in my apartment recuperating. Ruth has been my pulmonologist long before she diagnosed my incurable interstitial pulmonary fibrosis in 2010. Since then, she has sustained me through many challenges which many thought impossible. Fabio, on the other hand, fortunately gave me an angiogram as requested by Ruth three years ago. The result was angioplasty which yielded one stent. Last Monday, Ruth and Fabio agreed I should undergo a coronary angiogram because my lungs were quite weak and it was suspected that perhaps there was a problem with my heart. They were right and I now have two more stents which were needed because of blockage. Their performance as professionals speak for themselves, but they exceeded my expectations when the two work as a team.

The support staff of St. Luke Medical Center has been exemplary and I would like to cite one individual, who has supported me for the last eight years even beyond her normal responsibilities. I refer to Michelle Arville of the Patient Experience Department (inset photo) I chose not to include photos of Ruth and Fabio because doctors by nature prefer to be low profile.

The Art of the Deal

One benefit to recuperating from a major health event is the amount of time I now have to watch television and read books and magazines. Needless to say it is easy to become a purveyor of trivia. Here is one that is topical that I would like to share.

Everyone is eagerly anticipating the one-on-one meeting between President Donald Trump and Korean strongman Kim Jong un, who in a span of 60 days has transformed the Korean Peninsula from what was once a nuclear tinderbox into a zone of peace and harmony with a promise of being denuclearized. This stunning development has the Republicans nominating Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize. And who knows, after the summit, Kim might just be a co-recipient.

What might explain this astonishing transformation of Kim, whom Trump had derisively called the “Little Rocket Man,” but one he also acknowledges grudgingly as a “smart cookie.” There are many plausible theories, but the one that caught my eye was about basketball bad boy Dennis Rodman, who as it happens, is a friend of both Trump and Kim – probably the rarest of Americans. Rodman has visited North Korea several times and as a result, has developed a cordial relationship with Kim, who it turns out, is fond of basketball. It was after one of those visits in 2013 that Rodman urged then president Barack Obama to call Kim to establish a dialogue with their fondness for basketball as a bridge.

Rodman’s advice was, of course, dismissed as frivolous. Fast forward to June 2017, when Rodman made another visit which was about the time that an American held in prison by North Korea was released, but who soon died after from a previously incurred injury. There were speculations that Rodman was sent by Trump as a back channel to Kim. Trump first befriended Rodman when he was a guest in his Celebrity Apprentice reality show. Rodman publicly endorsed Trump during the 2016 campaign. Both the White House and the State Department denied that Rodman had official blessing to go on a special mission. Rodman says he went there to try to bring peace between the two countries, but didn’t say his visit was sanctioned by the US government. Coincidence? We really do not know unless someone owns up to it.

But here is the interesting trivia: during that visit, Rodman gave Kim a copy of the book “Art of the Deal” authored by no other than Trump. One of the principles in the book is “use your leverage”. Trump writes: “The worst thing you can possibly do in a deal is seem desperate to make it. That makes the other guy smell blood, and then you’re dead.”

When Kim declared that he would immediately shut down their nuclear testing facility as a concession demanded by Trump, a report came out that a reputable Chinese university research faculty had been monitoring North Korean nuclear testing and have concluded that there was a catastrophic collapse of the facility following the latest nuclear tests in September 2017. The report could be accessed on the university’s website. The report, if accurate, would have undermined Kim’s leverage. Essentially, what it amounted to was that Kim was offering something that amounted to nothing since the facility was unusable anyway. Kim took pains to dispute the report which has since been taken down from the website.     

There are principles of making deals in the book. It will be interesting to see how the pupil applies it to the mentor when they meet.

 Incidentally, Rodman’s father lives in Angeles City where he owns a burger restaurant – Rodman’s Rainbow Obamaburgers. The aptly named Philander Rodman, Jr is a 71-year old Vietnam War veteran who admits he fathered 29 children by 16 mothers, one of whom turned out to be the basketball star. The elder Rodman met his son for the first time in 2012 after 42 years of separation.