The Scalpel and the Silver Bear: The First Navajo Woman Surgeon Combines Western Medicine and Traditional Healing

After witnessing both the hantavirus scare and other rare medical conditions at the Gallup Indian Medical Center, Lori was learning “to relax and be open” (128) to the unexpected. One such event changed her life forever in 1993. While she was performing a routine appendectomy, a young man named Jon, who was in the Army Special Forces medic training group, assisted her. For most of Lori’s life she only considered other Native Americans for serious relationships, mainly because she was proud of her people. However, her and Jon turned out to be a good fit. They married the following year twice, with traditional American-style wedding and traditional Navajo wedding ceremonies. It was at the latter ceremony where Lori notes that her two parallels worlds combined for a few moments. Given that the Gallup Indian Medical Center had been important for her spiritual, cultural, and professional growth, she is unsurprised that she also met her husband there.

In this chapter, Lori describes one incident at the Gallup Indian Medical Center where modern medicine and Navajo beliefs and concepts collided. A Navajo family brought their young daughter named Melanie Begay to the hospital. Lori recognized that she needed an immediate appendectomy or else Melanie would die.