Bravo for Berlin!

The Coca Cola Company put out one of their most famous advertising campaigns when they switched from, "Things go better with Coke" to, "It's the real thing."  Who would have thought that would be better?  It was all about the song, its message and how we were feeling at the time - January 17,1981.  The Vietnam War was tragic, and healing was needed.  The "perfect harmony in the world" scenario could not have come at a more crucial time.  Here are the lyrics:

I'd like to buy the world a home and furnish it with love,

Grow apple trees and honey bees, and snow white turtle doves.

I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony,

I'd like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company.

[Repeat the last two lines, and in the background:]

It's the real thing, Coke is what the world wants today.

Talk about knowing your audience and reading the moment!  I heard this song replayed this past holiday season and as someone around when it first aired in 1981, it was a powerful nostalgic burst.  Branding works!

Well, this segue is a bit loose but I'm connecting to my brother's newborn son.  It relates to the "world harmony" theme of the coke ad campaign.  Please bear on.

My brother and his wife expected a child to be born this March, 2008, and he arrived on March 10th, three weeks early and nearly seven pounds.  There was no surprise in that he would need almost immediate heart surgery, routine, if you can call it that when it calls for three to four surgeries in the first year of life.  Reality proved to be different than prognosis - his heart was far worse than anticipated.  This infant boy has had three surgeries in his first 3 weeks of life and only God can account for why he is still alive, I am sure.   He needs a transplant, it turns out, and that usually means a 2-3 month wait.  He was severe enough that he was given just two days as the time-on-ventilator deadline (his heart stopped without the ventilator) after the first two surgeries failed - he went 8 days without complications and somewhere in those days it was decided that he was a great candidate for a "Berlin heart".

My research has taught me that the Berlin heart procedure is a bridge to transplantation, sometimes a very long bridge if necessary.  There can be complications but there are numerous successes.  This is not a procedure approved by the FDA in America so only the most qualified candidates will be considered on a case-by-case basis.  (It has been used in Europe since its invention in the 90's, where transplant candidates can easily wait for a year for a donor.)  It was exciting news that the device was being flown in one day and shocking news that a team of German surgeons skilled in the procedure accompanied it - that's when I cried, by the way.  After six hours of surgeries and many near-misses, the Berlin heart was in place, perhaps in the youngest candidate ever - stats are not available yet and none of us really cares.  When my brother was asked if his or his wife's insurance covered this non-FDA approved procedure, he responded, "I don't care."  I think that explains why this squeaky-clean couple in their forties, leaving their beloved three-year-old behind in the care of others so this child could get what he needed, are considered a compassion case.  We are all praying and wishing the best for Michael John Mackin, but we are also hoping the procedures to save him will not unduly burden the family.  Time will tell.

It has been over 36 hours since Michael survived surgery.  There is the trauma of weaning him from the ventilator over the next three days but he now has a very functional, temporary, heart, in an amazingly stong will-to-live body.  My brother is terribly troubled in that someone else's child will need to die to save his child's life but we are doing our best to reassure him that if in a similar position, he would choose to save another child's life.  We don't anticipate these life events; we don't orchestrate them.  We just react and survive.  That is our goal now, survival for Michael, and for every child facing a similar fate.

The bigger goal goes back to the opening of this entry - "I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony."

Don't we all want that?  Let's make that our goal, beyond Michael even.  Life is about these things - family, successes, losses - it's universal.  I don't care if it is simplistic...why can't we all just be friends?

Thank you Berlin!