Heidi just sent me this link to an USA Today article about doctors in Iraq. Her older brother Hans is an army neurosurgeon and is there now- that is him in the photo. I remember very well last summer when I was home drinking a beer with Heidi and her telling me that Hans had joined the Army. He later joined us and confirmed that Heidi was not joking. Reading this article really gave me an immense amount of respect for him going there and doing what he does. I thought of him when the ABC newsman Bob Woodruff suffered such a terrible brain injury in Iraq, but I had no idea that Hans had in fact operated on him! From the article:
Brain surgeons Schlifka and Bakken, with their shaved heads, look like bookends. Pasted around the hospital as a joke are photocopied pictures of Schlifka as "Dr. Evil" and Bakken as "Mini-Me" from the Austin Powers films.Schlifka, a former powerlifter, wears a surgical cap adorned with a Grateful Dead pattern of skulls and roses. Married and the proud owner of two 200-pound mastiffs named Baloo and Thor, he enjoys lifting other doctors off the ground for birthday photos here.
Bakken, his 5-foot-6 alter ego, wears prescription ballistic goggles for his astigmatism. They make him look like a World War I fighter ace. Single and from Decorah, Iowa, Bakken stunned his family last year by giving up a civilian practice to volunteer for the Army. Then he extended a six-month tour to a year.
The doctors had a brush with fame after operating onWoodruff and cameraman Doug Vogt, who were wounded by a bomb Jan. 29.
As I mentioned in this post- there are six kids in the Bakken house. I spent a lot of time in their big Victorian house while living in Decorah. Heidi is my one friend that I had all six years I was in school there. (we moved from Ann Arbor Michigan right before 6th grade.)
No comments:
Post a Comment