Jesus! Doc goes to help Africans, gets killed by crocodile!

I know it sounds sensational, but this is really sad. The guy had recently gotten his life together and wanted to dedicate his life to providing health care to poor Africans....


http://www.theolympian.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060321/NEWS06/60321056


Richard K. Root, a University of Washington Medical School professor who moved to Botswana earlier this month to help alleviate a shortage of doctors there, was killed when a crocodile dragged him from a dugout canoe, his family and colleagues said. He was 68.

Root was on a wildlife tour of the Limpopo River in remote northeastern Botswana with his wife, Rita O'Boyle, Sunday when it happened. The couple had been visiting a clinic in the area.

A nationally known expert in infectious disease and the former chief of medicine at Harborview Medical Center here, Root went to the African nation to train health care workers to deal with AIDS. Botswana's rate of HIV infection is about 40 percent.

The move and his marriage last year had given him a new purpose in life after some difficult years, which included having bypass surgery, suffering with depression and caring for his previous wife until she died in 2001 of a neuromuscular disorder.

David Root, a Seattle architect, said he had spoken with his father on Saturday, and that he happily described his work at Botswana's Princess Marina Hospital in the capital city of Gaborone.

"Dad had gone through hell and had to take stock of his life," Root told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Another son, Richard Root of Los Angeles, said his father, who had worked as a doctor in Iran in the 1970s, now wanted to dedicate himself to helping Africa.

"It was the happiest I'd ever seen him," said Dr. Harvey Friedman, chief of the infectious disease division at the University of Pennsylvania and director of its Botswana program.

He took an enormous risk just going to Africa to work in remote areas.

He was on a tour when he was kiled but he was there on a mission of mercy.

Bless him.

I agree he's a hero

"red in tooth and claw." It is worth noting, I think, as one of Dr. Root's colleagues observed that, "It was the happiest I'd ever seen him," said Dr. Harvey Friedman, chief of the infectious disease division at the University of Pennsylvania and director of its Botswana program."

Personally, I hope there will be others like him who will be willing to put it on the line to help the African people. I have many friends from that continent, and the people there surely need people with the knowledge, the skill, the dedication, the courage and the decency of Dr. Root. To you, Sir, may I say though I didn't know you in life, it is an honor to learn of your compassion and your decency.

Rest In Peace and May Your Spirit Soar!

Life is not fair.
A good person has this happen to him.

And bad people (hmmm-who could I be thinking of?) never really have
anything bad happen.