Should We Expect Miracles?

It’s a clever slogan – “expect miracles” – but by its very definition, you can’t expect a miracle. And yet, we hear about miracles everyday and wonder, “Why shouldn’t I expect one? It happened to him, why not me?” The reason? Miracles aren’t cheap.

The slogan was about a medical charity for children – what’s more noble than that? We can and do deliver miracles daily in modern medicine. A disease that would have killed someone five years ago is treatable today. Surgeries that would have required two weeks of inpatient recovery are now outpatient procedures.

But here’s the sad truth – medical miracles are expensive. I was talking with Tom, a former potentate of the Shriners, which operate a chain of children’s hospitals that specialize in many diseases and offer their services free to kids who are suffering from them. He told me that their daily money requirement to keep their services operational is $2.3 million US. Daily. Here in Arizona, they don’t have a Shriners hospital, so they spend $22,000 (weekly?) just transporting the 800 kids here to their locations in Los Angeles, Galveston, and Salt Lake City.

At the same time, their own membership is decreasing. Here in Phoenix, they went from 6000 members thirty years ago to a present number of 1100. They’re trying to downsize from their large halls to more reasonable facilities; and due to escalating rents, those are often not there. Since they don’t need inpatient facilities anymore they’re trying to get rid of their specialty hospitals in favor of specialty clinics which already work with children’s hospitals to give kids the free help they need.

Miracles costs money. Since this post is running too long, let me answer the obvious answer to this question tomorrow. Otherwise, what do you think? Should we expect medical miracles? What are we willing to pay for them? Put your answers in the comments below!