Teen Girl Recipient Of Life Saving Surgery Meets Doctor Who Performed It

This is the heartwarming moment Ashli Taylor, who received a life-saving liver transplant as a baby, got a surprise visit from her surgeon 15 years later.

[From article]

This is the heartwarming moment a high school student who received a life-saving liver transplant as a baby got a surprise visit from her surgeon 15 years later.
Ashli Taylor, of Temple, Texas, was not even a year old when she was forced to go in for surgery due to a rare congenital condition. 

The teen was overcome with emotion as she met the man who was the reason she was alive today.

Thanks to the skills of her talented surgeon Dr. Robert Goldstein, and her mother's incredible decision to donate part of her own liver to her daughter, Ashli went onto make a miraculous recovery.
The 15-year-old was too young to remember the man who helped saved her life so when her teacher Brad Billeaudeaux set the class a creative writing assignment, she decided to send a letter to Dr. Goldstein in September to say thank you.
Having mailed the letter, she thought no more about it - until the doctor strolled into her theater arts class at Temple High School yesterday afternoon.
'Guess who?' said Dr. Robert Goldstein, a transplant specialist from Baylor Scott & White Dallas, who told The Tennessean he was so touched by the gesture he had wanted to surprise her.
[. . .]
'Kids that go through the same thing... they don't always make it,' Taylor said. 'And me being able to make it, I'm just really grateful for those who helped.
'[Doctors] don't get a lot of 'thank-yous,' Taylor said. 'They need to know people appreciate their work.
The experience was just as emotional for Dr. Goldstein who admitted that the moment had nearly had him in tears alongside Ashli.
He said he had performed hundreds of surgeries over the years, but her letter out the blue had moved him and 'everybody in the office.'
'I can't tell you what this means,' he said.
'We made an impact on her, but Ashli made more of an impact on us. This is why we spend the hours doing what we do, because when you see something like this, it's incredible.'
'She moved me to the point where I wanted to give back,' Goldstein added. 'I wanted her to realize her words had a real lasting impression.'
In her moving letter, seen by the Temple Daily Telegram, Taylor wrote: 'You probably have no idea who I am, but you had a great impact in my life.'
'I know you've had a lot of patients over the years and they appreciate your work. But my parents' lives would be totally different if it weren't for you, especially my mom.'
Ashli was born with rare congenital cirrhosis of the liver.

[. . .]

The teen has gone onto to surpass all expectations and is in Advanced Placement classes at school and is a member of the band, choir and theater arts - despite fears her illness might cause her to fall behind academically.
She went onto to make a full recovery and has not shown any signs of organ rejection.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3341729/Moment-surgeon-performed-life-saving-liver-transplant-operation-surprises-teenage-recipient-15-years-later-heartfelt-thank-letter.html

Reunited: Surgeon who performed life-saving liver transplant surprises teenage recipient 15 years later after her heartfelt thank you letter
Ashli Taylor needed a liver transplant before she was a year old due to rare congenital condition
Her mother donated part of her liver and the life-saving operation was performed by Dr. Robert Goldstein
The 15-year-old wrote to the surgeon to thank him as part of a school creative writing project
He was so moved by the letter he decided to surprise the teen at class
By HANNAH PARRY FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 16:58 EST, 1 December 2015 | UPDATED: 00:40 EST, 2 December 2015

Life's Greatest Gift

[From article]
“Everyone has two lives,” Hunter Thompson famously said. “The second one begins when you realize you only have one.”
That’s why mortality is life’s greatest gift, for facing death reawakens the vitality, urgency and aspiration that slumber under blankets of complacency.
[. . .]
It’s no joke, but a realization forged from life experience, that the only perfectly happy families are ones you don’t know well. The truth is, there are no perfect families because there are no perfect lives. But there are imperfect people who, despite their difficulties navigating life’s tumultuous waters, strive to perfect the world by living lives of goodness — like my mom.
[. . .]
After bringing into focus so many unexpected memories, it’s clear how our mothers are our first and often best teachers. In learning from those who preceded, and then passing on that legacy to those who follow, parents bestow their greatest gift, an inheritance that keeps on giving from generation to generation.
“It warms the hearts of parents to see their children’s connection to family and to know that the values and traditions you have tried to impart to the next generation have actually been caught,” wrote spiritual author Ron Wolfson in his new memoir, “Of Blessings and Kisses.”
[. . .]
As I strive in this holy season to recommit to being the person my mom believes I can be, I’m reminded of the moving theme song from the musical “Rent.” It asks this question: In the “525,600 minutes of a year, how do you measure the life of a woman or a man?”
“Measure your life in love,” it answers. “Seasons of love.”
Being reawakened to life’s fragility is a blessing, for it inspires us to live our minutes with greater intensity and goodness, to continuously love, dream and create. It motivates us to take a minute when appropriate to say, “I love you,” “Thank you” and “I’m sorry,” or to ask, “Is there anything I can do to help?” It may even mean telling a joke when you’re not really up to it.
While we still have time, “Remember the love, share love, spread love,” as “Rent” exhorts, knowing we’re neither the first nor last to love, just the lucky ones to do so now.
http://www.aspentimes.com/opinion/18120273-113/sturm-how-do-you-measure-a-life

Sturm: How Do You Measure A Life?
Melanie Sturm
Think Again
September 10, 2015

Gentleman Who Shouted Profanities at Police in Court, Sentenced To Multiple Life Sentences For Shooting Four NYPD Officers

Nakwon Foxworth
[From article]
Judge Neil Firetog sentenced him to 25 to life on two counts of aggravated assault and 20 to life on three counts of attempted aggravated assault, all to run consecutively.
He also received 20 to life on multiple counts of criminal possession of a weapon and one year on a menacing charge.
The terrifying chain of events began when Foxworth, 36, became furious with movers at his Sheepshead Bay apartment building, as he, his pregnant girlfriend and their stroller-bound baby arrived home.
The mad man pulled a gun on one of the movers and threatened him, before retreating to his sixth-floor apartment to barricade himself, his girlfriend and the child and load a cache of weapons in anticipation of a police shootout.
[. . .]
The officers all miraculously survived thanks to [NYPD Det.] Ayala — who took bullets to the thigh and ankle but fiercely held onto the cops’ bulletproof shield to protect them.
Ayala thanked the judge before leaving.
Last month, Foxworth told a courtroom full of cops to “suck my d—k” as he was convicted of aggravated assault, attempted aggravated assault and other related charges but acquitted of multiple counts of attempted murder.

http://nypost.com/2015/05/21/man-who-shot-4-nypd-cops-grins-at-110-year-prison-sentence/

Man who shot 4 NYPD cops grins at 110-year prison sentence
By Lia Eustachewich
New York Post
May 21, 2015 | 2:03pm

White House Imitating Art

[From article]
Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s denial that he ever said that citizen complaints about Obamacare were merely lies and Obama’s assertion that he never drew a “red line.” Or Kathleen Sebelius’s claim that she never said that the sign-up goal for Obamacare was seven million people are perfect examples of how the Democrats are brazenly following the apparent policy of Orwell’s “Party” in 1984 to reverse reality from what it actually was to what they want it to be.
[. . .]
by the unionized teachers in the public school system of the United States, it might also be described as the Robin Hood Maneuver – Rob the Rich and Give (at least some of it) to the Poor.
Now this is not to imply that George Orwell wrote Robin Hood, but he did write Animal Farm. And as most people know, the single most striking line from that book is “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.”
Apparently Barack Obama has volunteered his services to separate those of us who are equal from those who are more equal. What a guy, eh?
[. . .]
the odds are (based on the past five years of watching the Obama White House function) that the President and his cadre will simply ignore the impending disasters associated with Obamacare. They will ignore any dangers associated with his schemes to correct income inequality. They will defend with unflagging zeal the Common Core uniformity he wishes to force on the American educational establishment and the students who will become semi-literate high school graduates.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/03/is_george_orwell_working_in_the_white_house.html

March 30, 2014
Is George Orwell Working in the White House?
White Hoiuse Imitating ArtJim Yardley

Parents' Love Trumps Medical Diagnoses

[From article]
There are plenty of reasons to question the medical establishment's handling of catastrophic cases involving brain injury and "brain death." In 2008, doctors were dead certain that 21-year-old Zack Dunlop was legally deceased after a horrible ATV accident. Tests showed there was no blood flow to his brain. His hospital issued a death notice. Authorities prepared to harvest his organs. But family members were not convinced. A cousin who happened to be a nurse tested Zack's reflexes on his own one last time as the hospital swooped in. The "brain dead" "body" responded. Forty-eight days later, the supposedly impossible happened: "Brain dead" Zack Dunlop walked out of the hospital and lived to tell about his miraculous recovery on the Today Show.
[. . .]
The "experts" were wrong. Haleigh breathed on her own; a caring team of therapists nursed her back to health. Soon, she was brushing her hair and feeding herself. She lived to testify against her abusive stepfather, now behind bars. Her survival is a stark warning against blind, yielding trust in Big Nanny and Big Medicine.
We don't know what God has planned for Jahi. But I do know this: America has become a throwaway culture where everything and everyone — from utensils to diapers to cameras to babies — is disposable. Elites sneer at the sanctity of life. The Terri Schiavo case brought out the worst, most dehumanizing impulses of American medical ethics debates. And from the attacks I've seen on the McMath family, little has changed.

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/michelle/malkin010114.php3#.UswWj900i6Y

Jewish World Review
Jan. 1, 2014/ 29 Teves, 5774
The gifts of Jahi
By Michelle Malkin

Planets Found That Can Support Life

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2245761/Seven-Milky-Way-worlds-harbour-life-say-astronomers.html

Seven Milky Way worlds could harbour life, say astronomers (after just
a year of hunting)
Habitable Exoplanets Catalog says first year has exceeded expectations
It was launched in December 2011 with just two entries in its database
Finds expected to accelerate as methods become more sophisticated
By DAMIEN GAYLE
Daily Mail (UK)
PUBLISHED: 07:19 EST, 10 December 2012 | UPDATED: 08:02 EST, 10 December 2012

Do Microbes Need Light?

Cackler says, "microbes can be grown anywhere with a light source and a supply of nutrients." But Harvard's Astronomy Professor Dimitar Sasselov says, in his new book, "The Life of Super-Earths," page 109, "Microbes that live deep within the Earth's crust [. . .] depend on nothing from the surface. The heat comes from the depths of the planet, the chemicals and water are already there, and sunlight is not needed."

http://www.thecrimson.com/column/science-in-the-public-eye/article/2012/11/7/biofuel-energy-renewable/

Powering the Future with Microbes
How to generate energy using microbes
Harvard Crimson
By JACK M. CACKLER
Published: Wednesday, November 07, 2012

Three-Year-Old Delaware Boy Saves Aunt's Life

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2203958/Shes-laying-shes-seizure-mouth-closed-The-heroic-911-THREE-YEAR-OLD-boy-saved-aunts-life-collapsed-park.html

'She's laying there and she's had a seizure and her mouth is closed': The heroic 911 call of THREE-YEAR-OLD boy who saved his aunt's life after she collapsed in a park
By LAURA COX
Daily Mail (UK)
PUBLISHED: 21:17 EST, 15 September 2012 | UPDATED: 21:32 EST, 15 September 2012

Grandma Dies While Saving Grandson Pushing Him Out of Danger

Hero: Clara Almazo, pictured with members of her family, died in the accident after saving her eight-year-old grandson

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2126745/Grandmother-dies-pushing-grandson-path-hit-run-driver.html

Making the ultimate sacrifice: Heroic grandmother dies after pushing grandson out of the path of hit and run driver on their way back from church
Staten Island grandmother pushes her grandson out of path of car and loses her life
The driver fled the scene but later handed himself in
Family left distraught on Easter weekend
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
PUBLISHED: 00:27 EST, 8 April 2012 | UPDATED: 00:49 EST, 8 April 2012

CT Man, 65, Saves Toddler in Florida Ocean, Drowns

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2127551/Heroic-65-year-old-man-drowns-saving-toddler-strong-riptide.html

Heroic 65-year-old man drowns while saving toddler from strong riptide
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
PUBLISHED: 00:08 EST, 10 April 2012 | UPDATED: 00:08 EST, 10 April 2012

Simple Sentences

"I married a guy, he killed himself, I inherited everything," she tells Spin magazine. "That's the way it goes."

http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/very_tough_love_uYEZxORt6chqTt5dug9RBN

Courtney Love raw on Kurt Cobain marriage

New York Post

Last Updated: 11:18 AM, February 12, 2010

Posted: 12:29 AM, February 12, 2010

The ' L I T T L E ' Things

The ' L I T T L E ' Things



As you might know, the head of a company survived 9/11 because his son
started kindergarten.

Another fellow was alive because it was
His turn to bring donuts.

One woman was late because her
Alarm clock didn't go off in time..

One was late because of being stuck on the NJ Turnpike
Because of an auto accident.

One of them
Missed his bus.

One spilled food on her clothes and had to take
Time to change .


One's
Car wouldn't start.

One couldn't
Get a taxi.

The one that struck me was the man
Who put on a new pair of shoes that morning,
Took the various means to get to work
But before he got there, he developed
a blister on his foot.
He stopped at a drugstore to buy a Band-Aid.
That is why he is alive today.


Now when I am
Stuck in traffic ,
Miss an elevator,
Turn back to answer a ringing telephone ...
All the little things that annoy me.
I think to myself,
This is exactly where
God wants me to be
At this very moment..

Next time your morning seems to be
Going wrong ,
The children are slow getting dressed,
You can't seem to find the car keys,
You hit every traffic light ,
Don't get mad or frustrated;
It May be just that
God is at work watching over you.


May God continue to bless you
With all those annoying little things
And may you remember their possible purpose.


Pass this on to someone else, if you'd like.
There is NO LUCK attached.

A M E N


Yvonne