Raymond Plotkin
was a freshman at UNM in 2009. A native of Texas, he was one of 18 freshman accepted
into the Learning and Living Community for Engineering. He planned to become a
nuclear engineer, and he was very happy here. He loved living in Redondo Village and eating at La Posada. He was
a friendly young man who liked his roommates and got involved in student
engineering clubs and the local Hillel House. He kept in close touch with his
parents and older brother in Houston.
His mother Elaine said, “Raymond fell in love with UNM. He really connected
with his School
of Engineering advisors
and did very well in school. He made good friends and was having fun.
Everything was falling into place for him and the future looked bright.”
The Fall semester
was going well. Raymond carved a jack-o-lantern for Halloween and reveled in
his first snow experience, even saving snowballs in his dorm room freezer. When
the time came, he got a flu shot. Sadly, that was the year that the H1N1 flu
took the nation by surprise, and the regular flu shot, the flu shot that was
available to Raymond, didn’t include protection from H1N1.
In early November,
2009, Raymond got his first symptoms. He came to the Student Health
Center and was treated
for flu. A few days later, on a Saturday, he got much worse and his roommates
took him to UNMH where he was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit. For four
days the doctors did everything they could, fighting to save his stricken lungs
and heart with all that modern medicine has to offer. Tragically, nothing
worked. On November 11, just weeks shy of his 19th birthday, Raymond
died from H1N1.
A week before his
death, Raymond posted a quote on his Facebook page. “Life’s challenges are not
supposed to paralyze you, they’re supposed to help you discover who you
are.” Raymond’s parents, rather than
allowing themselves to become paralyzed by the terrible grief that losing a
child brings, have become passionate advocates of influenza immunization. They
don’t want anyone else to lose a son or daughter to flu if it can be prevented.
“Take One for Raymond” is the name of their initiative that has now become a
foundation, spreading the word about influenza immunization.
Writes Elaine
Plotkin, “All we ask is that everyone considers taking a flu shot, and if
you’re on the fence about it, please think about it again. No family wants
to hear that a loved one is sick in bed with the flu. It is our intent to
educate and inform everyone about the importance of flu immunization. We do
this because we wouldn’t want any other family to have to go through what our
family has … without our son. That is why we will do everything we can do to
ask each of you to take the flu shot, if you are able to do so.”
Student Health & Counseling (SHAC) and UNM Hospital
partner to offer free “Take One For Raymond” flu shot clinics for the UNM community.
The influenza vaccine will be offered to UNM students, staff and faculty
(anyone 18 years old or older) Tuesday-Wednesday, Sept. 25–26, and
Tuesday-Wednesday, Oct. 23–24 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Student Union
Building atrium.
Elaine and Ronnie Plotkin, Raymond’s parents,
also established a scholarship in his name, starting the fund with a generous
donation the same year they lost Raymond. Each Fall, the scholarship is awarded
to an incoming freshman engineering student. Recipients so far are Paul
Gilbreath and Sean Chavez. To contribute to the scholarship or for more
information, contact the UNM School of Engineering at 277-5064 or visit http://www.unm.edu/~soeschol/freshman.html
.
For the past two
years, Elaine Plotkin has written an article like this one for the Daily Lobo.
This year the honor is mine. I take this
task very seriously because, you see, I have a son almost Raymond’s age. And that same year, my son also contracted
H1N1. To my profound relief, he survived it. So every Fall when flu season
breaches the horizon, I imagine the pain Raymond’s parents have endured, and my
heart hurts. And every Fall I find inspiration in the courage they have shown
by moving beyond the paralysis of unimaginable challenge, and I go “take one
for Raymond.”
I hope you will
too.
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