I must confess, I was bored.

Why was I bored? Because I was walking around Chicago, the Windy City, instead of listening to a lecture by one of the foremost minds in cerebrovascular surgery. They misdelivered my luggage. Not the airline, mind you, but the shipping company that had all my tradeshow items. Hence I was sleuthing around Chicago, tracking number in hand, like a more irritable, less British, Sherlock Holmes.

Being bored made me realize something. I was missing the medical student lecture, not physically, but mentally. I’m not a physician, aspiring or otherwise, so why would I find such a talk intriguing? Because any medical topic, when well-spoken by an authority, becomes engaging.

Dr. Fady Charbel is such an authority. “Renown” is a strong word, and oft misplaced, but given the frequency of his worldwide lecture tours, and the regard in which he is globally held, the word applies.

So when he creates a Flow Symposium, not only to share his expertise, but to offer hands-on surgical training to the brightest residents in his profession, the waiting list can outstrip classroom and laboratory capacity. Which it did. As a medical writer, I was impressed.

But I must confess that I’m only a sometimes-medical writer.

When I finally gave up my tradeshow items for lost, I returned to find surgery in progress. Twenty-five pairs of hands practiced stitching the tiniest vessels I’d ever seen. A fully-medical writer may have been filled with the desire to learn such skill, or at least with awe at their ability to achieve it. But I’m only a sometimes-medical writer. In truth, I’m partially a storyteller.

So I was captivated by thoughts of the daily stories that each of them would write with their blossoming careers. They will save lives, using surgical skill and flow measurement to snatch patients out of Death’s cold hands. And it won’t happen once or twice. No, it will happen daily. Saving someone’s grandma, someone’s son, someone’s niece between a good breakfast at home and a mediocre lunch at the hospital cafeteria.

I must confess that when my tradeshow supplies showed up the next day, far too late to be of any use, I didn’t really care. I was transfixed by the stories that were beginning to unfold around me. A story of legacy, passed on from a master cerebrovascular surgeon to apprentices. It was an opportunity to witness a rare thing, like a phoenix hatching…

Because most likely, none of their stories will be written down by me or anyone. They will be lost the moment they are created, like the stories each of us live every day.

But the effects will remain and change the lives of those who didn’t lose a loved one.

So, though things are forgotten, they are not lost.

Anyway, that’s what happened last week in Chicago, The Windy City, where all things blow away with time.

Image of UIC mural wall, Dr. Fady Charbel, top right