March 25, 2009

Doctor in mid-surgery heart scare

Claudio Vitale, a 59-year-old brain surgeon, was carrying out a delicate operation to remove a brain tumour in a Hospital in Naples, Italy, when he began having chest pains. Well, even when he realized, some minutes later, that he was having an angina attack, he refused to stop the surgery, despite his team’s urging and the pain worsening. “I couldn’t leave the patient at such a delicate moment,” he later told La Repubblica newspaper. “I’m not a hero,” he added, “I was only doing my duty.” After finishing the surgery, the doctor had an angioplasty operation to treat his attack.

However unusual and unlikely this might seem, in the light of the times we live in, such things still keep on happening upon this planet. Besides, this shows that, after all, it's not true that “good news is no news.”

Both men are now said to be recovering well.

Together around Mary

Today is the Fest of Annunciation, that is the revelation to Mary, the mother of Jesus, by the angel Gabriel that she would conceive a child to be born the Son of God. 

In the occasion Lebanon’s government launches a joint Christian-Muslim celebration in honor of Mary, who is venerated in both communities: the first “Islamic-Christian Day.” “Together around Mary, Our Lady,” is the title chosen for a celebration which will be more of a national event than a religious one. 

Frankly it seems to me to be a very good idea. H/T The Catholic Key Blog and Catholic Information Network.