52-Year Old Cardiologist To Deploy

February 15, 2009 By CJ
Posted in Uncategorized

This is another example of the patriotic Americans we have living in this country. From the Dallas News:

By DAVID TARRANT / The Dallas Morning News
dtarrant@dallasnews.com

Within days of the 9/11 attacks, Jerrold Grodin responded in a way thousands of other Americans did: He marched into an Army recruiter’s office and enlisted.

But Grodin wasn’t your typical fresh-faced recruit. He was a 50-something doctor, a board-certified cardiologist with a long-established group practice at Baylor Hamilton Heart and Vascular Hospital. And he had three college-age daughters and a wife of 26 years, whom he hadn’t yet told of his plans to enlist.At a time when his peers were thinking ahead to retirement, Grodin was about to trade in his blue scrubs for green Army fatigues.

Now, approaching the end of his commitment with the Army Reserve, he is being called a hero for his service, which included two tours in Iraq as an internist and critical care doctor.

But eight years ago, his decision caught even those closest to him by surprise. His family thought he was heedlessly putting his life at risk. Friends and colleagues wondered if he was having a midlife crisis.

What would cause a doctor, with a prestigious and lucrative practice, a family man with deep roots in his community, to willingly turn his life upside down and throw himself into the most dangerous place on earth?

The decision brought a feeling of release from an old burden: Grodin was finally answering a calling avoided for decades. The only thing he wasn’t certain of was how the Army would react.

“I wasn’t sure they would take a 52-year-old guy,” he said. “And I wasn’t in the best shape.”

Read the rest of this story at the Dallas News to learn more about his calling.

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