The Summary Of In Celebration of Being Alive written By Dr. Christiaan Barnard

In Celebration of Being Alive Short Notes written By Dr. Christiaan Barnard

Christian Barnard, born on 1922 is the famous heart surgeon. He performed the world’s first human heart transplant operation. He always found the suffering of children particularly heart-breaking. Some few years ago, he and his wife met with an accident while they were crossing the road. He dashed against his wife and she fell on the other side of the road. His eleven ribs were broken and lung was perforated. His wife had a badly fractured shoulder. Both of them had experience the fear and agony in the hospital. He totally disagreed with his father’s view that God tests human beings and suffering ennobles a person.

In Celebration of Being Alive - Dr. Christian Bernard

One day Barnard’s father showed him the last eaten biscuit of his brother. It was half eaten and mouldy. His brother died of abnormal heart. That was the first introduction of Dr. Barnard to the sufferings of children. He felt that if his brother had been born that day, the sophisticated heart surgery would have saved him.
Several years ago, one morning Dr. Barnard witnessed an incident at Cape Town’s Red Cross Children’s Hospital. That incident made him realize that he was missing something in all his thinking about suffering.

In Celebration of Being Alive by Dr. Christiaan Barnard Notes

A nurse left a breakfast trolley unattended. Two children who were patients took charge of the trolley. One was blind and the other was crippled. The former played the role of a driver and the latter played that of a mechanic. The blind boy provided motor power, and the crippled sat on the lower deck and steered the trolley by scrapping his foot on the floor. The rest of the patients laughed and gave shouts of encouragement. The nurse and the ward sister finally took control over the situation.

Christian Barnard in celebration of being alive
The mechanic who was seven years old was admitted in the hospital as he had serious burns on the upper part of his body and lost both eyes. The driver had a harmful tumor and his shoulder and arm were cut off. He was not likely to live long.

in celebration of being alive story
These two children taught Dr. Barnard a profound lesson that the business of living is in the celebration of being alive but not just something for pleasure, amusement and recreation. They made it clear that being alive is more important than the suffering they are experiencing. They made him understand that he had a distorted view of suffering till then.

Some Important Questions of in celebration of being alive
1. What has the changed view of Barnard about suffering?
Ans. One cannot become a better person by brooding over his suffering. One becomes a better person after experiencing suffering. Just as we cannot appreciate light without knowing darkness, and cannot appreciate warmth without experiencing clod, we cannot enjoy real happiness unless we have experienced suffering.

2. What lesson did the two children teach Dr. Barnard? Who were the children? What lesson did they give?

Ans. The two children a blind driver and a handicapped mechanic taught Dr. Barnard the lesson that the business of living is in the celebration of being alive; but not just something for pleasure, amusement and recreation. They made it clear that being alive is more important than the sufferings they are experiencing. They made him understand that he had a distorted view of suffering till then.