C. Everett Koop, Dead at Age 96

C. Everett Koop was the real deal. Back in the early 1990s, when I was on the board of an adoption agency, we were presented with a conundrum: Siamese Twins (aka conjoined twins) in Thailand which, if they were not separated, were doomed to die. The issue was brought to me first, and I confess that I was a tower of "yeah buts..." but William L. Pierce of the National Council for Adoption was not. He called up C. Everett Koop, who said Children's Hospital of Philadelphia could separate the twins, but it would take more than half a million dollars. The issue came back to me. I said a half million dollars was as impossible as $50 million. William Pierce went back to C. Everett Koop, and Koop swung the iron and "boom" -- he got Children's Hospital to shoulder all but the post-operative costs. Could I help raise the money for that? That I could do, and we did (with a lot of help from a lot of very good people), and those two kids now live in the U.S. (adopted), and last I looked they each had more than 250 Facebook friends. I am not sure anyone else knows this C. Everett Koop story, but it's not one I will ever forget. Thanks Doc. You were a light. A true light.