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Ralph Zuranski: I am Ralph Zuranski. I am with Dr. Asa Morton. He is one of the charitable heroes that I met along my pathway through life, and Dr. Morton, I wonder if you would explain a little bit about your program on helping people in Guatemala.
Dr. Asa Morton: Well, thanks for asking. I work with a group called Helps International, which started in the early 1980’s by some very good people that decided they wanted to make a difference in one of our neighbors in Central America. It is a country that had been ravished by civil war for thirty years. A recent peace treaty signed in 1976 gave us the opportunity to start try to heal some of the wounds that were caused during that lengthy period.
Dr. Asa Morton: I am a physician and I do reconstructive surgery and vision reconstruction surgery in the form of cataract surgery, so it seemed like a natural fit. About ten years ago, I became involved with that group and have organized vision restoration teams and plastic surgery of the face teams to handle burns, machete wounds and other tumors of the face. So it has been my pleasure to work with them and to have them allow me to join their wonderful effort.
Ralph Zuranski: I know what you have done has really helped a lot of people, and it is a huge project that you do in generating the funding to do that and getting all the doctors to help. You alone, I think, probably in this particular area, would be able to define what a true hero is. What is heroism to you?
Dr. Asa Morton: It is a hard question to answer because I am a little uncomfortable with the word “hero” in regard to the work we do. I feel fortunate to be able to organize teams and to work with other people who share those goals. What we are doing is what we do here.
Dr. Asa Morton: We are just taking that product somewhere where it is not available and making it available to people without access to care. So, in terms of my being a hero, I guess I understand the purpose of the web page and I am honored to be included in that group, but I think it is just an opportunity that God gave to me and I that have tried to do something with and share it with others and grow it into a bigger and better thing.
Ralph Zuranski: What is your perspective on goodness, ethics and moral behavior?
Dr. Asa Morton: You know, we make a commitment to ourselves and we live life in the way that we choose. The standards we use help us to define who we are and how comfortable we are in being the people that we are. I tried to lead my life by the tenant that I do what makes me happy with the express caveat that it doesn’t harm others and the sincere hope that it helps others.
Ralph Zuranski: There is a real question about sacrificing your life for others. There are people that run into a burning building; our troops in the military that give their lives. Sometimes, there are people that sacrifice their life in helping others. What is your perspective on sacrificing your life?
Dr. Asa Morton: Well, I have several lives. I have a professional life here. I am fortunate to be in private practice in San Diego and to be able to earn a reasonable income. With that responsibility comes providing for my family. I have young boys and a wife, and I want to provide for them an education and the opportunities that come with the first world.
Dr. Asa Morton: Beyond that, though, what is left over allows me to carry, with their support, that willingness to help others into another world whose conditions aren’t as favorable for young people to have educations and for people to have access to medical care. So, when you put it all together, you have to have a health first life existence if you are going to work in the third world, and combining the two and keeping both worlds working in symbiosis is a difficult thing but very rewarding.
Ralph Zuranski: When was the lowest point in your life and how did you change your path to win a victory over all obstacles?
Dr. Asa Morton: Wow, that is a tough question. I had a pretty bad injury in the early 1980’s in a small ultra light plane crash, and came very close to dying and/or becoming a paraplegic. But I healed and had several months while I was in hospitals and convalescing to reflect on the issues in life that are really important, and I think that was a good refocusing point, sort of in the middle of my life to date to stop and evaluate the directions I was going and ensure that everything counts.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you have a dream or a vision that sets the course of your life?
Dr. Asa Morton: I think that is an evolving dream. I want to stay involved with our work in Guatemala. Helps International has been such a great organization to work with. Their president, Steve Miller, has been such a friend to me and an inspiration for the development of this large organization that has literally helped hundreds of thousands of people to date over the time that we have been involved together.
Dr. Asa Morton: I would like to evolve my professional life to a point where my financial situation allows me more opportunities to travel into Guatemala. I also want to develop the youngsters that we take with us. We take high-school students and young doctors and nurses into this environment and give them an introduction to humanitarian care and these causes at a time when they are still early in their development, where the seed can be planted and can grow for many years. I think that has been the greatest reward over the last few years of my involvement with humanitarian work.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you take a positive view of setbacks, misfortunes and mistakes?
Dr. Asa Morton: I think these are all part of our lesson pack. If you do have a setback and you absorb only the negative from that that setback, then it is just that, a setback. But if evaluate it and find out why you were setback by this and learn from it and go forward, then it becomes a valuable lesson.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you that think it is important to be an optimist?
Dr. Asa Morton: I think some days you can be an optimist. There are days when I am definitely pessimist and I need to work and understand why I feel that way. But the more I work toward being an optimist, I guess, the better and more productive I am.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you feel that it takes courage to pursue new ideas and paths in your life?
Dr. Asa Morton: Do you feel that it takes courage to pursue new ideas and paths? Well, one of my preceptors somewhere along the way in my medical education said, “out of all your new ideas maybe only ten percent will work.” So, if you have a lot of ideas and you are going in a lot of directions and you are throwing a bigger net out there, then your yield and the opportunity to make some of those come true increases. I guess every new idea I have I don’t expect to be a success. But by becoming involving with many new ideas, I sort of increase my opportunity to have one or two of them work out.
Ralph Zuranski: It has taken a long time to become a doctor. I mean, many, many years of school and just training, that is sort of a denial of immediate gratification. Do you think that experiencing that discomfort and that long term sacrifice.. do you think that it is worth it to achieve your goals?
Dr. Asa Morton: I do. I tell some of my patients when they come in and ask questions, and they want to understand everything about their care, that I am in 28th grade. It has taken a long time to get to this level of understanding. I really work hard to get them to understand their disease or their process or their surgery, but some of the details are hard to explain without that scientific base.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you think that it is important to believe your dreams will become a reality?
Dr. Asa Morton: I think you need to believe they will become a reality, but you also need to accept that not all of them may become a reality, and when they do, what can you do to redirect and approach it from a different direction to make those dreams come true. I believe if you have a true desire to go in to medicine or in to law or in to any specialty or any trade, if you work hard enough at it and you don’t give up, then the opportunity will eventually open itself to you. As you pursue that, though, you may find along the way that other opportunities are more desirable to you, and maintaining that truth and flexibility to change that dream is very important to being healthy.
Ralph Zuranski: Everybody has doubts and fears. How are you able to overcome your doubts and fears?
Dr. Asa Morton: I guess I think about the doubts and fears after I get involved in something. I do tend to have thoughts as I start on a new project. Most recently, we went to Guatemala and I was taking three 16-year-old high-school students with me, and the responsibility of having them with me on the team and what that meant. Had I yielded to those fears I would have given up on the greatest gift and opportunity that I have been given to date. So, I analyze those fears and doubts but I sort of work through them in a healthy, somewhat aggressive way.
Ralph Zuranski: Is there anybody or anything that has given you the willpower to change your life for the better?
Dr. Asa Morton: I think there are probably hundreds of people in my life and in history that I have studied and learned from. There are family members. From my mother and my father. All the other people that have influenced me along the way. Probably too numerous to list. I have been very blessed to be surrounded by wonderful people that have given me the opportunity to develop in whatever direction I could.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you think that it is important to forgive those who upset, offend and oppose you?
Dr. Asa Morton: Absolutely. Anger and remorse and guilt really are not productive things. I think that you need to end confrontation and resolve it within yourself, because the only anger that you have is your own. You can’t control other people’s anger, and letting go of that and moving through it has allowed me and will allow others to be the best that they can be.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you experience service to others as a source of joy?
Dr. Asa Morton: Oh, absolutely. I do. Working in another country. Working here. Just in my job. My daily job as a physician here. I get my greatest paycheck and my greatest reward from a happy, satisfied patient. That could be in the first world, the third world or somewhere in between.
Ralph Zuranski: What place does the power of prayer have in your life?
Dr. Asa Morton: I believe each of us has their own higher power. Mine is God and I seek advice from God, and try to lead my life in a way that I think would be pleasing to him.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you think it is important to maintain a sense of humor in the face of serious problems?
Dr. Asa Morton: Humor is a very valuable thing. It helps us to deal with some of the internal emotions that we are having, grief and other things. How we use that humor can be a very healthy habit.
Ralph Zuranski: Who are the heroes in your life today?
Dr. Asa Morton: My parents; my family members; my uncles. The physicians that have trained me. The mentors that have worked with me along the way. The instructors that helped me learn to fly and to pursue those goals. These are all people whom I am blessed to have had in my life.
Ralph Zuranski: Why are heroes so important to the lives of young people?
Dr. Asa Morton: I think that when we are young we can be shaped easier. The clay is still not set and those people that provide us with insight into the direction they took and can sort of help us along that path are very valuable to us.
Ralph Zuranski: Who do you think are the heroes today that are not getting the recognition that they deserve?
Dr. Asa Morton: I am going to have to pass on that one.
Ralph Zuranski: How do you feel that people become heroes?
Dr. Asa Morton: Would you repeat that question?
Ralph Zuranski: How do people become heroes?
Dr. Asa Morton: I don’t know. That is a hard one. Again, I am a little uncomfortable with the term. I guess the guys that ran into the Twin Towers to pull people out at great risk to their own life. That is probably the most true definition of a hero. I believe how we lead our life and the role model we are for others, to our children and to our community, is a very important part of that, but I am not sure I would classify that as heroism.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you have any good solutions to the problems facing society, especially racism, child and spousal abuse, and violence among young people?
Dr. Asa Morton: I think aligning ourselves with causes that help others decreases the focus on ourselves. Not lose sight of the focus on ourselves, but become involved in some manner and in some fashion that benefits our society, our culture, the people around us. Becoming aware of a bigger sphere than just the one we live in, that would change many things in our society today.
Ralph Zuranski: What do you think about the “In Search of Heroes” program and its impact on youth, parents and business people?
Dr. Asa Morton: I like your idea, Ralph, of using the internet. A tool that can now spread images just as fast as it could share words in years past. To share stories of others, and by increasing viewership and maybe enticing others to learn about different career paths and different opportunities, we can grow these types of projects to a level much greater than they are today. It sort of gets back to your question before about how we can do the greatest good for society by enticing people at an early age to become involved, to reshape how they think and how they care for their fellow man, we can make a difference before the tree is grown.
Ralph Zuranski: What are the things that parents can do that will help their children realize that they too could be heroes and make a positive impact on the lives of others?
Dr. Asa Morton: I think the role model that they are; that they provide for their children; the constant care and love and attention that they give them, and by providing the children with boundaries. Today, it is just too easy to give up as a parent and let those boundaries stretch as kids push and want to gain new responsibility. Children need to have some boundaries. They need to know beyond what point they are violating the trust they have with their parents. By providing that to them at an early age and giving them examples as role models, I think we can shape a better tomorrow.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you think that it is important to have discipline for your kids? I know there is a question in society these days about parents being their kids’ best buddies. Do you think it is important for parents to actually set the parameters and use discipline to help their kids on the path that they should go?
Dr. Asa Morton: Absolutely, I do. I do want to be my sons’ friend, but that is not my first job. My first job is to make sure that when they leave my house that they have the tools to survive in life. That they are compassionate and caring people, and if I have to lay down the law and become heavy at times when they want to go different directions, then I will continue to do that. Because that is the job I took when they became my rental property, as it were.
Ralph Zuranski: Well, I really appreciate your time, Dr. Morton. Is there any parting thought that you would like to share with the young people that are looking at this video?
Dr. Asa Morton: Ralph, thanks so much for asking me to be on your web page. I would just say that it is time to get involved. Your youth is an opportunity to explore new things, and there are all sorts of great opportunities out there. Viewing and being a part of another culture and trying to make a difference is just one thing. There is lots we can do right here at home and never give up your dreams.
Ralph Zuranski: That is great. Thank you so much.
selection to the prestigious Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society, later serving as President of the local chapter. Upon graduation Asa Morton, M.D.was awarded the Surgeon General Award for academic excellence, medical professionalism and leadership skills.
Asa Morton, M.D. completed his internship and ophthalmology residency training at the Naval Medical Center San Diego, during which he was selected as the Intern of the Year. Upon completion of his residency Asa Morton, M.D. was assigned to the Naval Hospital Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico, where he ran the Ophthalmology Department. Selected for the highly competitive University of Michigan program (Go Blue), Asa Morton, M.D. spent 2 years studying and operating with innovators in the field of Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery of the eyelids, forehead, face, orbits and lacrimal system.
Asa Morton, M.D. served as the Director of Oculoplastics and Orbital Reconstruction, National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland, more commonly known as the “President’s Hospital”. At present he is an Assistant Professor of Surgery at the Uniformed Services University.
Dr. Morton is committed to volunteering on various humanitarian surgical missions and education programs for medical providers in developing nations. Over the past decade he has served as both teacher and surgeon in Pakistan, India, Brazil, Mexico and Guatemala. Asa Morton, M.D. is certified by the American Board of Ophthalmology and is a fellow of the American Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon.
Asa Morton, M.D. brings this extensive training and experience to Eye Care of San Diego / California Laser Vision Inc., offering Facial Rejuvenation services.