You Can't Keep a Good Corpsman Down

My father is one of the original Skeeter Beater team members in the South Pacific -- one of two still living. He had a stroke last month and is recovering well. We recently celebrated his 86th birthday. He has survived being covered with DDT powder regularly, contracting malaria, serving as a hospital corpsman in WWII and Korea, a major heart attack nearly 30 years ago, an abdominal aortic aneurysm repair, and now a stroke. They just don't make them like they used to!

When he was having the stroke, he was very confused. He had a headache, and he wanted an aspirin. He kept asking my mother for one. After telling him for the fifth or sixth time that all they had was baby aspirin, my father said, "Well, it's a hell of a thing when a hospital corpsman can't find an aspirin!"

Physically, he is strong as an ox. He has lost some short-term memory and his cognitive abilities have been somewhat affected. We don't know how he will progress, but so far, so good. You really can't keep a good corpsman down. They are always ready when someone yells, "Corpsman up!"

The fight goes on...

I wish I could say that I haven't been blogging here because malaria is no more. According to the World Health Organization, in Africa, malaria still kills nearly one child every 45 seconds. Malaria also affects people in the Middle East and Eurasia, Pacific Asia, and the Americas. That's right. Although the death rate is low, there are still 22 malarious countries in the Americas.

I took a break. Malaria did not. The fight goes on.