The Surgeon Who Operated for Free

In 1994, Dr. Erica Chen volunteered at a medical clinic in rural Guatemala. One afternoon, a young mother named Sofía carried in her three-year-old son, Marco, whose infected leg had gone untreated for weeks. The bone was deteriorating. Without surgery, he would lose the limb. Sofía wept and explained she had no money. Worse, she confessed she had been to the clinic before — two years earlier, for her own treatment — and had stolen medical supplies on her way out.…