I wished them well and was sad to hear that it had failed. But whenever I hear of one of these kinds of operations that require huge outlays of money and resources, I always wish that a fraction of that could be applied to some of the thousands and millions of people whose lives could be saved or significantly improved if the public will were there to support it.

I think there is a crisis in delivery of non-heroic medical care in the world and even in the mega-rich US, and this event only profoundly reminds me of that.