Rotary Club of Palgrave’s Weekly Rotary Minute

August 25, 2017 · 0 Comments

By Leslie Barmania
While in Seoul, South Korea, for the Rotary International Convention in 2016, my husband took sick in the night.
After rushing him to hospital in an ambulance, the doctors spend a couple of days running tests before they were able to determine the problem. My husband was bleeding internally and needed an immediate operation. Finding my husband’s blood type in a South Asian country on an emergency basis was our biggest worry.
The hotel staff was so supportive. They brought me lunch and snacks to the hospital and stayed with me to act as translators.
When the doctor told me of the need for my husband’s blood type, the hotel staff put the word out at the hotel and rushed door to door at the hotel, knocking on each guest’s door asking each guest their bold type. Within minutes, they found an Canadian Rotarian with the same blood type who was scheduled to fly out that afternoon. The hotel manager gave his car to an employee to take the blood donor directly to the hospital.
After the operation, I had a moment to contact other local Rotarians. They put the word out. I also contacted a few other Rotarians, and within two days, we had received seven pints of blood. The Metro Hotel in Seoul treated me like family for the four weeks I had to stay there.
Acts of kindness were huge, all starting because I was a Rotarian. The gift of life given to my husband were because of my connections to Rotary.
For more information on how the Rotary Club of Palgrave helps international children and women’s programs, or for information on becoming a member, please visit www.rotaryclubofpalgrave.com anytime.