Dr. Oliver Engelhard is the firefighter for Diospi Suyana
In December we already had a premonition of a patient onrush in January. In the search for a staff solution we knocked on the door of the family Engelhard on Dec. 7th. The specialist in internal medicine. Oliver, and his wife Birgit had already helped building the hospital in the years 2006 to 2011. Four days after we had called to make our request, Dr. Engelhard had already booked his ticket to Peru. He not only invests 3 weeks of his annual vacation time but as well all of his travel expenses. This “SOS” relief operation is already his second for Diospi Suyana.
So the question arises, whether this man doesn’t suffer from the “helper syndrome?” The first time I heard this expression was 33 years ago. At that time I was a medical student and two doctors were talking snidely about a colleague, who spent his time voluntarily for humanitarian medical work. According to Wikipedia this illness hasn’t been confirmed empirically. But for sure a lot of people suffer from the “egoism syndrome”, most likely the fundamental evil in all human living together.
We are thankful that Dr. Engelhard stands by our side repeatedly. He is an achiever, who doesn’t need many words. If there is another emergency, we will call his number in Northern Germany again, without hesitation. Maybe he will follow his heart again and jump on a plane. /KDJ
