POTW_May 18th, 2012

<p>Last of the Quail Motorcycle Gathering Photos</p><div></div>

<p>#2</p><div></div>

<p>#3</p><div></div>

<p>Lots of Ox-eye daisies blooming. So I spent some time with them.</p><div></div>

<p>Hilton Head island weekend </p><div></div>

<p>-and another pic from the beach in SC</p><div></div>

<p>last pic with fauna </p><div></div>

<p>...</p><div></div>

<p>Bribie Island boats for hire...</p><div></div>

<p>2nd shot</p><div></div>

<p>3rd shot</p><div></div>

<p>View from the Flying Saucer.</p><div></div>

<p>My mother, aged 89, died this morning. She had asked that her eyes be removed for re-use. There is a staggering shortage of donated corneas in India and much correctable blindness. Two friends said that this picture shows how repellent can be the sight of a noble act. I see myself as a photographer of reality, so it does not trouble me.</p>

<p><strong>Please remove this photo if it is considered unsuitable.</strong></p><div></div>

<p>Batman Live</p><div></div>

<p>Sorry to hear about your mother, Mukul.</p>

<p>Thank you, Sanford. I am pleased to say that she went out without undue suffering. For those who are interested in anthropology or in women's affairs, here is an obituary: <a href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article3439403.ece?service=mobile">http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article3439403.ece?service=mobile</a></p>

<p>That's a great story and a very good documentary photo, Mukul. There's nothing repellent at all about the photo, but my perspective is influenced by my own experiences. One of my jobs in the Navy as a Hospital Corpsman was working in the tissue bank and harvesting donor organs and tissue, so I'm a firm believer in the good of doing that.</p>

<p>Lex, Ft. Sam Houston? What year?</p>

<p>Back in the 1970s the Navy's Transplantation Technician training program was at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, MD (in conjunction with Walter Reed).</p>

<p>After school in 1978 I transferred back to NRMC Balboa. We did only a handful of organ/tissue harvesting sessions, so it was mostly an on-demand, sideline to our regular duties which ranged from dialysis to maintaining an experimental/training medical/surgical facility for surgeons and oncology research.</p>

<p>In part there wasn't as much awareness so we didn't get many eligible donor bodies in time. Another factor was the difficulty in keeping the OR suitably sterile. Standards for sterile post mortem organ harvesting were much higher than for conventional operating rooms. So we didn't do much harvesting of kidneys, etc. We mostly harvested skin for burn dressings and bone for various purposes. An outside contractor harvested corneas.</p>

<p>Needless to say, I'm an enthusiastic supporter of organ/tissue donation. Even with greater awareness now it's still a stressful decision for families to make and I empathize with anyone who has to make that choice on short notice. And I admire Mukul's photo because it takes a unique and complex combination of love, respect for dignity, curiosity and desire to communicate to others what we're experiencing at those times and to help humanize and demystify the end of life process.</p>

<p>--></p><div></div>

<p>Charles River, near Cambridge, MA. Panasonic Lumix G1, Lumix 14/2.5 lens.</p><div></div>

<p>Lex, there were some unhappy Navy guys at Ft. Sam Houston who thought they would be on a ship after medic training but wound up assigned to the Marines.</p>

<p>Hey, my first assignment out of basic Hospital Corps school was Fleet Marines, 1st Med Battalion at Camp Pendleton. I enjoyed that duty. I liked the grunts. Not much actual medical stuff happening, though, so after a couple of years I put in for a transfer to Transplantation Tech school, which was much tougher than I'd expected. Overall I had a great time in the Navy and learned a lot, no complaints.</p>

<p>Too few people think about these things, Lex. Some years ago I visited a niece who is a surgeon. I found her in tears, though I had seen her when she was a tough little girl. A child under her care had died who could have lived if a kidney had been available: just one kidney from the thousands of people who would have died that week. </p>