Braun: In easing Haiti’s suffering, N.J. doctor finds meaning of joy

Megan Coffee does not offer to explain why she does what she does, except to state the obvious: It makes her happy. It makes her happy to use the knowledge and skills earned from, among other experiences, her medical education at Harvard and her PhD from Oxford, to treat, for no pay, some of the sickest people on earth in one of the poorest places on earth, Haiti.

“I heal very sick people,” she says. “I can see them get better because of the things I’ve done.’’ She estimates she has treated more than 1,000 AIDS and tuberculosis patients.

It may be a measure not so much of Coffee but of others that this should be remarkable. Who wouldn’t be happy curing very sick people? But Megan has the credentials, the skills, the experience, to, say, be a faculty member at a medical school while running a lucrative medical practice. She could be rich and comfortable.