What Shape Will Your New Year Take?

  The packages are all unwrapped, the wrapping paper and trash have been thrown away, and the lights and decorations are being stored for another year.   It is hard to believe Christmas is over and we are anticipating the prospects of a New Year. As I reflect back on the events of 2014, it is hard to comprehend all that has happened. The year started with the death of my mother, immediately followed by having my third major joint replacement in 10 months. It continued with speaking opportunities; 2 trips to Haiti to lecture at several hospitals and work in the newly established wound center at Hôpital de l’Université d’État d’Haiti, the main teaching hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti; and being named an Associate Professor of Wound Care at the Universite D’État d’Haiti, Faculté de Médecine et de Pharmacie/École De Biologie Médicale, Port-au-Prince. This was in addition to my “real” job of seeing patients at our wound center. It was a very busy year.

  Unfortunately, other international events, such as the Ebola virus epidemic, made the year even more eventful for me. Although initially many miles away, this epidemic also affected us here at home. Obviously, the Americans and others who became infected and were treated in the United States brought the impact of the epidemic closer to home, but for some of us, it was even more personal. The African surgeon, Dr. Martin Salia, who contracted Ebola and was treated in the United States before dying of the disease graduated from a surgical training program, the Pan-African Academy of Christian Surgeons (PAACS), an American organization that trains African surgeons in Africa. I have been honored to teach wound care courses for them. Another of the PAACS graduates, Dr. Jerry Brown, is on the cover of Time magazine as one of the Ebola fighters honored as Person of the Year. There are 3 other PAACS graduates working in Ebola-stricken areas of Africa helping care for patients with this deadly disease. Dr. Brown’s story, as told in Time, shows that these health care workers do not consider themselves invincible as they treat Ebola patients, but their faith and sense of duty to their friends, neighbors, and patients keep them at their posts. These health care workers are true heroes. These worldwide events become more personal when you know the people involved.

  As I look forward to 2015, I wonder what the year will hold. From a wound care perspective, I truly hope that efforts to improve wound care in the United States and around the world will continue. This will depend on people being interested in learning more about wound care and on our ability to provide the necessary education. I hope that research on the basic science of wound healing will continue to provide information that will allow the development of more directed treatments for all wounds, acute and chronic. I hope each of us will help those in need as willingly and selflessly as those treating Ebola patients, whether our call is at home or abroad. Happy New Year.