If miracles can travel south, they can travel north as well.
Utah doctors who performed medical miracles on children in Chile now are hosting Chilean doctors who thought they never could come to the United States.With a combined salary of $400 per month, Dr. Sergio Echeverria, an ophthalmologist, and his wife, Dr. Karin Bauer, a pediatric surgeon, had never expected to be studying medicine in the United States. They knew it would take a miracle.
Fortunately, Dr. James A. Kilgore and his wife, Rinda, are no strangers to miracles.
As members of an Interplast team (U.S. doctors who volunteer their time to perform plastic surgery in Third World countries), the native Utahns last year took their healing hands south to make children marred by cosmetic defects more acceptable to society. Working side by side with dedicated Chilean physicians to close gaping holes in youngsters' palates and lips, they witnessed medical miracles time and time again.
Financial miracles, they decided, were a mere pittance in comparison - as evidenced by the arrival of Echeverria and Bauer in Utah this week.
Thanks to the fund-raising efforts of the Kilgores - and with a lot of help from their friends - the Chileans will study for six weeks with doctors at Primary Children's and the University of Utah medical centers.
James Kilgore, who's now practicing in Oregon, arranged for the medical training. But Rinda says it was Salt Lake residents, touched by their pictures of the Chilean children, who raised more than $5,000 to make the physicians' trip possible.
Through fireside chats, the Kilgores shared the wealth of experience of their 1988 visit to Temuco, Chile, where they lived with Echeverria and Bauer. Daily they also worked with them in the dilapidated regional hospital that serves 900,000 Chileans.
Natalie McCullough, who had packed the Kilgores' suitcases with more than 100 colorful T-shirts for Chilean patients, was particularly touched by photos of a pediatric burn patient whom she was determined to bring to Utah for treatment.
"But we decided it made more sense to bring the surgeons here for advanced training," Rinda Kilgore said.
McCullough went to work to accomplish that goal. Money raised through regional dances, bazaars, plus donations at the firesides, paid travel expenses for the Chilean doctors, their two toddlers and Bauer's mother. The LDS Colonial Hills Ward was the biggest contributor, donating $1,500.
"None of this would have happened without Jim and Natalie McCullough, who were the most instrumental in fund raising, laid all the ground work for the visit and are now coordinating all their activities in Utah," Rinda Kilgore said. "It was easy for us to be caught up in this miracle, but they didn't even know Karin and Sergio.
"For them (the McCulloughs) to generate this much enthusiasm and work this hard is amazing to me."
Others have also helped.
Dr. Randall J. Olson, chairman of the U. Department of Ophthalmology, is coordinating Echeverria's training.
Dr. Richard Black, a pediatric surgeon at Primary, has arranged for the family to have free housing across from the hospital. Meal tickets have also been donated by the pediatric hospital, where Bauer will spend much of her time before the couple leaves Utah next month for additional medical training in Oregon.
There they'll be reunited with the Kilgores, who helped make their dream come true.
"We were really struck with their dedication to their profession and their eagerness to learn," said Rinda Kilgore, who flew from Oregon to meet her foreign friends at the Salt Lake International Airport this week. "They were just soaking in everything like sponges - asking us all about medicine in America."
Bauer and Echeverria will return to Chile with advanced training and state-of-the-art equipment - also to be paid for by the volunteer fund-raisers - which they can share with colleagues.
Most importantly, the Utahns believe, the Chileans will go home with a renewed faith in the need to cross borders to make miracles happen.