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Jeff Stewart
Assistant New Car Sales Manager
Serving the Community Since 1969
248-636-2736
CONGRATULATIONS
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Lois Haron Allied Member ASID 248.851.6989
8 July 21 • 2016
Let’s End Gun Violence
F
or seven years, I worked at
Boston’s Brigham and Women’s
Hospital, where I met and
married my husband, Dr. Damanpreet
Bedi. I was a dietician specializing in
advanced nutrition support, caring for
patients in intensive
care or those who
required feeding
tubes or IV nutrition.
I worked in the inpa-
tient cancer center
and the cardiac ward
with patients who
had cardiac surgery
or transplants.
Nicole Bedi
My former col-
league, Dr. Michael
Davidson, was a brilliant Jewish car-
diac surgeon known for his incredible
bedside manner and for treating the
sickest of patients. He might be alive
today if he had reasonably refused to
see the man who showed up in his
office on Jan. 20, 2015. But that wasn’t
in his nature, so Michael delayed his
appointments and met with Stephen
Pasceri, the disgruntled son of a for-
mer patient who had died at another
hospital. Michael spent more than 30
minutes trying to console Marguerite
Pasceri’s grieving son, despite the fact
that Marguerite Pasceri had long since
been released from his care and her
death wasn’t a result of the surgery he
performed.
Her son murdered her doctor and
killed himself.
As the wife of a doctor and as a
mother, I was filled with an inexorable
sense of grief and fear when I heard of
Michael’s murder. Every day that my
husband goes to work at Royal Oak
Beaumont, I am haunted by nightmar-
ish thoughts.
I began to
The late Dr. Michael
realize that
Davidson
with the cur-
rent state of
firearms culture and legislation, there is
nothing that might prevent this tragedy
from happening again, possibly even to
my own family.
The gun violence that assaults us
every day — from Orlando to Dallas
— leaves a shadow over our daily lives.
There seems to be no end; incidences
of gun violence play out in the national
news even as I write this.
Michael’s death profoundly changed
my outlook on life: It was the last straw.
I felt compelled to get involved in gun
violence prevention and joined Moms
Demand Action for Gun Sense in
America.
As I got more involved in gun vio-
lence prevention, I realized that I had a
responsibility to do more for my family,
for Michigan. I decided to run for state
representative.
As a mother, a former hospital
employee and the wife of a doctor, I
don’t think legislation allowing individ-
uals to carry loaded guns in hospitals,
churches and schools is keeping our
communities safe. I have an obligation
to my family and my community to
become part of the solution, and I will
not shirk it.
In light of the many, many tragedies
that we have all seen play out in the
news, I am acutely aware that every day
is a gift, and I plan to use mine to make
our lives healthier and safer.
*
Nicole Bedi is a wife, mother, registered dietitian
and #GunSense activist who lives in Birmingham.