REFLECTIONS
I AM AN IMMIGRANT
Teresita Bacani-Oropilla , MD
Why am I here ?
I
am a retired physician . I come from the eastern part of our earth , dubbed “ the Pearl of the Orient Seas ,” the Philippines . My nuclear family and I are also proud US citizens having migrated , lived , loved and raised another generation in this country for almost half of a century , 44 years to be exact . My husband rests in peace where the sun shines bright in Kentucky .
Life in the Philippines was great . Being professionals , we belonged to the middle class . I had a thriving pediatric / family practice using much of the training that I had previously acquired as a rotating and pediatric resident at the University of Louisville after graduating from medical school in the late 1950 ’ s . For 15 years , with great satisfaction and limited resources , I treated whomever and whatever came to my clinic , adults and children alike . I treated pertussis , malaria , helminthiasis , typhoid , tuberculosis , and the like ; revived a victim of the dreaded “ Cholera El Tor ,” and even reattached a finger that had been “ hanging there for a week ” instead of cutting it off per request of the mother .
Malnutrition was rife . I advised on raising premature triplets , and fed children suffering from kwashiorkor with donated samples of powdered milk or eggs from their only family hen . I also introduced immunization for children and “ cured ” a deaf grandmother , to the delight of her family , by removing impacted cerumen from her ear canals . Now she would hear the horn from the tricycles as she crossed the streets !
My husband was an executive manager in a diversified plywood lumber / agricultural company . Our young son and daughter were in private schools . We were respected leaders in our community . Life was good ! However , Communism was spreading in the neighboring countries . Ngo Dinh Diem was assassinated in Vietnam . Cambodians had been killed by the millions , divested of property and sent to the fields to raise food . The Philippine local communists were beginning to take hold of the farmers in our mountains . Our American Maryknoll friends advised us to leave before the Philippines would also be overrun .
It took us four years to apply and be issued a proper visa to enter the US as professionals . By then martial law had been declared in the Philippines and we were allowed to take out $ 1,500 for our family , $ 500 each for us two adults , $ 250 each for our two children , and our clothes in four suitcases .
In retrospect , there were many adjustments for a newly impov-
10 LOUISVILLE MEDICINE