Choose Charleston

The whole downtown medical district gets a-buzzing when the Roper-St. Francis cafeteria has smoked turkey legs on the lunch menu.

Big juicy smoked turkey leg and some sweet tea - you might as well be walking the midway at the county fair. Not that walking is the thing to do in this kind of heat. Man, that sunshine just pushes you down and makes you say, “Uncle!” And that’s just from crossing the street. Can you imagine what the construction workers are feeling right about now?

On the subject of Roper-St. Francis Healthcare, kudos are due. Health Imaging and IT Magazine recently named RSFH as one of the top 25 connected healthcare facilities.

Accurate information and the ability to access that information in a timely manner are vital to patient care, as we all know, and RSFH is just as pleased as a peach at the way their people consistently keep them on the leading edge, technologically speaking.

Now, everyone go hug someone from hospital IT. They’re the behind-the-scenes heroes keeping the information flowing, after all.

Every now and again, I run through the local Craigslist just to catch a sense of what folks are buying, selling, or trading. What kinds of gigs are emerging, what openings for talent are on the upswing, and who is scouting out whom?

The method, I’ll grant you, is hardly scientific. Its fundamental limitation is that it only speaks of the segment of the population that chooses to use online posting to announce its hopes and dreams.

Some of it is truly scary. “Surely not in gentle Charleston,” I have whispered many a time while going clickety-click through the ads.

We could simply blame ‘bots for anything too out of character, of course, but it is also true that these are changing times and a changing place. People are moving to the South Carolina Lowcountry at an increasingly rapid rate, each bringing their own individual blend of ideas and expectations into the big old melting pot of Frogmore Stew we call home.

Even old Charleston, South of Broad, has absorbed its share of incoming new money from the North as of late.

We still have our cobblestone and the soft clop-clop of horse hooves from the carriage tours but we also have an emerging digital corridor and a medical district that is soaring skyward like something out of Jack and the Beanstalk.

Strange days may be ahead for this rapidly changing place.

Gentlemen ages 40 to 80 with no prior history of prostate cancer who are not currently under the care of an urologist - looking for something to do this Thursday evening?

Roper Hospital will have their Grand Lobby stocked with refreshments and health information on Thursday, July 19, from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. The occasion is a Men’s Night Out focused on prostate cancer awareness.

You say that you don’t have to worry about prostate cancer? There’s a one in six chance that you could be very wrong about that. And when it comes to cancer, the importance of early detection and treatment cannot be stressed enough.

Those who attend the health fair will have an opportunity to watch a demonstration of the new da Vinci surgical system.

Advance registration, by calling (843) 402-CARE,  is required.

While we were driving back from a photo shoot up in the Grand Strand, my friend’s daughter pointed to a billboard and asked, “Da Vinci at Roper? What does that mean?”

Having access to press releases means that I get to act like I’m really smart when people ask about something new in town.

Of course, if I actually were one of the sharpest knives in the drawer, I would be part of Roper St. Francis Healthcare. They are consistently on the cutting edge of medical technology and offer some of the best patient care to be found in the local area.

And given the abundance of care options in Charleston, that’s saying something.

The da Vinci Surgical System allows surgeons to perform procedures via micro-instruments that scale and translate their hand movements. This minimally invasive approach can mean less pain and faster recovery for patients.

When the American Cancer Society first contacted me to photograph the groundbreaking ceremony for the expansion of the Hope Lodge on Calhoun St., across from Rutledge Tower, I had not realized that I would be meeting one of the most amazing individuals in our area.

Margot Freudenberg grew up in a community of doctors and academics in her native Germany. It was there that she trained as a physical therapist. In 1940, as synagogues and human lives were being shattered across Europe, her family brought her to the United States.

She never forgot the warmth of the welcome that she received in South Carolina.

She quickly became a powerful voice for hope, connectedness, and positive change in the lives of others.

In 1970, she helped establish the first Hope Lodge, a place where cancer patients being treated at local hospitals can stay with their families. There are now 22 Hope Lodges across the nation, with 21 more being planned. The groundbreaking ceremony for the expansion of the Charleston Hope Lodge is a major milestone for the lifelong American Cancer Society volunteer.

On August 9, the Riviera Theatre at Charleston Place will host a tribute for Margot Freudenberg, on the occasion of her 100th birthday.

Regarding her 67-plus years of service to others, she says simply, “I have a debt to pay.”