I choose not to recall the time I passed a kidney stone there, or another occasion when a Japanese woman wearing high-heeled shoes, just ahead of me, fell to her death off Huayna Picchu. Notwithstanding these dramas, Machu Picchu has been very kind to me, and I’ll honor her (she is female, of course) with one of my fondest memories.
Back in the nineteen-eighties I was dragging my hot, sweaty boots down the last leg of the Inca Trail past Intipunku, facing that amazing view, when I noticed that something unusual was afoot down on the esplanade.
A crowd, tiny at this distance, swarmed around the eastern terraces, and as I watched, formed up and seemed to settle into place. Then I heard strange noises, formless and eerie, which resolved themselves into the sound of an orchestra tuning its instruments.
The volume swelled as I neared the Watchman’s Hut and coalesced into the opening bars of a classical piece. After a brief hassle with the authorities — who inevitably thought everyone should pay extra for this unannounced privilege but weren’t sure how much they should charge, or whether they should really charge at all, or whether actually a small tip would do the trick — I found myself seated with a group of my trekking clients and other visitors on the terraces below the Temple of Three Windows.
Gathered across the esplanade from us, solemnly attired in black and white on that warm, sunny day, sat the very same Lima Symphony Orchestra that will be playing there — probably on that very same spot — before the incoming and outgoing politicos and assorted dignitaries this week.
Why that spot? Because orchestras know a thing or two about acoustics, and so, evidently, did the Incas. The orchestra and choir had taken their stand within a large recess at the foot of what Hiram Bingham charmlessly named the Industrial Sector. The sound, often wispy and fugitive in open-air settings, leapt at us off the terraces, full-throated in the mountain air.
Inspired by the Incas’ acoustical magic, the musicians surpassed themselves. They were peforming Mozart’s Requiem, a piece that would wring blood from a stone.
Memory is hazy here, but I seem to remember that the performance was followed by a rapt, lengthy silence. Then the audience recovered its senses and remembered to clap.
2011年7月13日星期三
2011年7月6日星期三
WPSD Anchor Donates a Kidney to Her Oldest Son
WPSD‘s Johnette Worak will take a break from her morning and mid-day anchor duties this summer to donate a kidney to her adult son, who suffers from cystinuria, a condition that leaves patients with chronic kidney stones.
Worak and her son, Rodney (pictured here), will undergo surgery tomorrow at the University of Kentucky Transplant Center. Rodney was diagnosed as a teenager, Worak wrote on the WPSD website. “Last October, two weeks after he got married, his kidneys shut down. We’ve been working toward transplant surgery ever since, and if all goes well, it will be almost as if Rodney’s kidneys never failed. (The success rate is 95 percent in our favor.)”
Worak, who is also the NBC affiliate’s medical reporter, expects to return to her anchoring duties in August. “Certainly not going to be fun, but we think it’s going to be worth it!” She wrote. “In the meantime, we hope you’ll keep us in your thoughts and prayers.”
Worak and her son, Rodney (pictured here), will undergo surgery tomorrow at the University of Kentucky Transplant Center. Rodney was diagnosed as a teenager, Worak wrote on the WPSD website. “Last October, two weeks after he got married, his kidneys shut down. We’ve been working toward transplant surgery ever since, and if all goes well, it will be almost as if Rodney’s kidneys never failed. (The success rate is 95 percent in our favor.)”
Worak, who is also the NBC affiliate’s medical reporter, expects to return to her anchoring duties in August. “Certainly not going to be fun, but we think it’s going to be worth it!” She wrote. “In the meantime, we hope you’ll keep us in your thoughts and prayers.”
2011年5月8日星期日
Man who inspired Government cancer pledge is refused NHS treatment
Clive Stone so impressed Mr Cameron with his battle to improve access to NHS treatment for cancer that the Conservative leader announced the pledge from the retired bank manager's home, during last year's general election campaign.
On Wednesday, Mr Stone, who suffers from liver cancer, and lives in the Prime Minister's Witney constituency, will go to Buckingham Palace to receive an MBE for services to cancer patients.
But on Friday he learned that his own plea for NHS treatment to remove a tumour in his brain has been rejected.
On Wednesday, the same day Mr Stone travels to London to be honoured by the Queen for his contribution to cancer care, health bossClive Stone so impressed Mr Cameron with his battle to improve access to NHS treatment for cancer that the Conservative leader announced the pledge from the retired bank manager's home, during last year's general election campaign.
On Wednesday, Mr Stone, who suffers from liver cancer, and lives in the Prime Minister's Witney constituency, will go to Buckingham Palace to receive an MBE for services to cancer patients.
But on Friday he learned that his own plea for NHS treatment to remove a tumour in his brain has been rejected.
On Wednesday, the same day Mr Stone travels to London to be honoured by the Queen for his contribution to cancer care, health bosses will consider a bid to fund his case as an "exceptional" case.
Since being diagnosed with kidney cancer three years ago, Mr Stone, 63, has undergone nine operations to remove tumours, which have now spread to his brain.
Two of those tumours have been removed, but surgeons have said the only way they can remove the remaining one is to use Gamma Knife treatment, which does less damage to surrounding tissues than conventional surgery.
But Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust (PCT) says it does not routinely fund the operations, and the Government pledge pay for all cancer drugs requested by an NHS consultant does not cover treatments other than medication.
Mr Stone, whose wife Jan suffers from advanced breast cancer, said he felt "angry and desperate" that despite his fight to improve treatment for cancer patients, he was now facing another battle.
His campaign group Justice for Kidney Patients has brought hundreds of patients to meet drug rationing bosses, and battled in parliament.
Mr Stone said: "David Cameron was sitting on my sofa when he announced the cancer drugs fund. I felt very emotional to hear his words; it offered so much hope to people with cancer. I remember on that day, in April of last year, I said to him, 'Don't let us down'.
"I can't believe that on the one hand the Government is thanking me for services to cancer patients, but meanwhile the NHS is prepared to refuse me the only treatment that can help me."
Mr Stone said he felt angry that despite Government pledges to help cancer sufferers, local NHS administrators across the country were routinely blocking requests for many types of treatment.
He said: "At the moment my consultants have to prove that I am exceptional, that I deserve a chance more than anyone else does. That is not what I want: what I want is for the NHS to give all of us a fair chance."
A spokesman for Oxfordshire PCT said: "When we are presented with a treatment request which is not routine it is normal practice to have it considered by an exceptional cases panel.
"This serves to both assess its clinical appropriateness and funding. Mr Stone's case will be given full consideration at the meeting this week."
es will consider a bid to fund his case as an "exceptional" case.
On Wednesday, Mr Stone, who suffers from liver cancer, and lives in the Prime Minister's Witney constituency, will go to Buckingham Palace to receive an MBE for services to cancer patients.
But on Friday he learned that his own plea for NHS treatment to remove a tumour in his brain has been rejected.
On Wednesday, the same day Mr Stone travels to London to be honoured by the Queen for his contribution to cancer care, health bosses will consider a bid to fund his case as an "exceptional" case.
Since being diagnosed with kidney cancer three years ago, Mr Stone, 63, has undergone nine operations to remove tumours, which have now spread to his brain.
Two of those tumours have been removed, but surgeons have said the only way they can remove the remaining one is to use Gamma Knife treatment, which does less damage to surrounding tissues than conventional surgery.
But Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust (PCT) says it does not routinely fund the operations, and the Government pledge pay for all cancer drugs requested by an NHS consultant does not cover treatments other than medication.
Mr Stone, whose wife Jan suffers from advanced breast cancer, said he felt "angry and desperate" that despite his fight to improve treatment for cancer patients, he was now facing another battle.
His campaign group Justice for Kidney Patients has brought hundreds of patients to meet drug rationing bosses, and battled in parliament.
Mr Stone said: "David Cameron was sitting on my sofa when he announced the cancer drugs fund. I felt very emotional to hear his words; it offered so much hope to people with cancer. I remember on that day, in April of last year, I said to him, 'Don't let us down'.
"I can't believe that on the one hand the Government is thanking me for services to cancer patients, but meanwhile the NHS is prepared to refuse me the only treatment that can help me."
Mr Stone said he felt angry that despite Government pledges to help cancer sufferers, local NHS administrators across the country were routinely blocking requests for many types of treatment.
He said: "At the moment my consultants have to prove that I am exceptional, that I deserve a chance more than anyone else does. That is not what I want: what I want is for the NHS to give all of us a fair chance."
A spokesman for Oxfordshire PCT said: "When we are presented with a treatment request which is not routine it is normal practice to have it considered by an exceptional cases panel.
"This serves to both assess its clinical appropriateness and funding. Mr Stone's case will be given full consideration at the meeting this week."
es will consider a bid to fund his case as an "exceptional" case.
Since being diagnosed with kidney cancer three years ago, Mr Stone, 63, has undergone nine operations to remove tumours, which have now spread to his brain.
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