However Far The Stream Flows: The Making of the Man Who Rebuilds Faces - Softcover

Boahene, Kofi

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0997493003 ISBN 13: 9780997493009

Publisher: Platform Press, 2016

Synopsis

This is the story of an impossible dream that came true. It starts with a ten-year-old boy in Ghana stumbling on an encyclopedia entry about the founders of the Mayo Clinic, Dr. William Mayo and his two sons, in a far-off place called Minnesota. He decides that one day, when he grows up, he will work there. Although the odds are stacked against him, he dreams of becoming a doctor, oblivious to the many obstacles he will encounter before it can come true. This is a story of how Kofi Boahene, son of a salesman and a bank teller, met and overcame those obstacles with the help of proverbial Good Samaritans that seemed to pop up at just the right moment. Sustained by his faith and devotion to his parents and seven younger siblings, Dr. Boahene pursued his impossible dream until it came true. He has been described by CNN as “The Man Who Rebuilds Faces,” and his example is inspiring a new generation of African students to follow in his footsteps.

About this title

From the Author

I have retraced the past forty or so years of my life, from a child in Ghana to Johns Hopkins University, and what made it into these pages is a collection of stories and events that shaped my worldview, guided me on my path, and inspired me toward realizing my improbable dreams. In recording these tales I am continuing a family tradition of storytelling, passing history from one generation to the next. My hope is to inspire young Africans who may be drawn to the practice of medicine to persevere in spite of the obstacles they may encounter, and to bring the skills they learn to those who are, as the Bible suggests, "least among us."

From the Back Cover

However far the stream flows,
it never forgets its source.
--African Proverb
Our friend was bleeding to death and no one at the hospital in Kumasi, Ghana, seemed to care.
In spite of a phobia I'd had since childhood about the sight of blood, I helped my schoolmates keep steady pressure on his wounds. There was no sign of a doctor in the emergency room and a nurse had told us, "There's nothing we can do. You'll just have to wait."
To our naive and terrified ears, she meant, If he dies, what's one life more or less? We sat there with our moaning friend, our hands and clothes smeared with his blood, holding blood-soaked cloths to his wounds, all of us scared.
After a long wait, our friend finally got the treatment he needed. I walked back to school clutching one of the sticky, blood-soaked T-shirts we had used. As I approached the campus I tossed it into some bushes.
That act became symbolic, a major turning point in my life. My father had planted the idea when I was five that I would grow up to become a doctor. My mother had nurtured it into a dream.
Now that I had my hands bloodied trying to save a life, I had no trouble imagining being one, and to use my skills to bring better care to those who are "least among us."

Edition details

• Publisher: Platform Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0997493003
• ISBN 13: 9780997493009
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 272