It’s a good bet that many people in healthcare took up their calling because of a personal tragedy.  The death of a parent or sibling drives some; the serious illness of a child often is compelling.   Perhaps the best known story is that of Augusto and Michaela Odone who took on the challenge of inventing a treatment for their son’s adrenoleukodystrophy, as dramatized in the 1992 movie Lorenzo’s Oil.  Lorenzo Odone died at home in Fairfax, VA in 2008, though the search for a cure lives on in the research of the “Myelin Project.”  Susan B. Komen for the Cure, Immune Deficiency Foundation, Ataxia-Telangiectasia Children’s Project and many other advocacy and research organizations started when the behemoth called health care was hopeless.

Another example in this vein recently appeared in Forbes-a story about Martin Rothblatt’s transformation in searching for a drug to treat his daughter’s pulmonary arterial hypertension.  It tells how he championed this rare disorder and translated his business success in satellite communications to founding a drug company.  There’s more to it than that; so read the story. l It’s inspiring to know that some people really are larger than life when it comes to bringing about change.