Miracle of survival

Before last week, probably very few of us had ever heard of Quecreek, Pennsylvania. But Quecreek was suddenly on just about everyone’s mind this weekend as we followed the attempt to rescue 9 miners trapped hundreds of feet below ground.

And when we woke to the news on Sunday morning that against all odds every one of the miners was alive and well, it was one of those remarkable moments when all of our differences suddenly mean little compared with the sheer humanity of people working tirelessly to help others survive.

This is not the sort of topic I usually address in the e-Alert, but somehow it’s also quite fitting. At HSI the idea of survival is never far from our minds. So it’s deeply inspiring to hear the reports about how unwavering the human spirit to survive can be: the miners who lashed themselves together so that no one would float away in the darkness; the engineers who quickly devised a way to create an air shaft for the miners while agonizing over the decision of just how and where to drill an escape route; and the workers who may have despaired but never dreamed of giving up until the work was resolved.

In addition to fighting for survival, we’re also always searching for the next true miracle. This week we all got to witness onein Quecreek.

To Your Good Health,

Jenny Thompson
Health Sciences Institute