Miracle Monday: ER doctor competes in 80-mile paddleboard race to fight cystic fibrosis

On this week’s Miracle Monday, you’ll meet a doctor who will literally cross the ocean for his patients.

Hours before he sees his first patient of the day at Golisano Children’s Hospital, Dr. Alfredo Vargas, an emergency room doctor, gets up before the sun to get out on the water to train.

“I’m going to participate in an event that’s called The Crossing for Cystic Fibrosis, and what it is it’s a paddleboard race that takes you from Bimini in the Bahamas, across the Gulf Stream to Lake Worth beach,” Vargas said, “so it’s about an 80-mile trek across the Gulf Stream.”

The event, which started in 2013, was inspired by the health benefits the ocean has on people living with cystic fibrosis.

“It’s a genetic disorder, so children that have it, adults that have it are born with it, and it’s a progressive respiratory disease that eventually leads to respiratory failure,” Dr. Vargas said. “The treatment for cystic fibrosis has really grown over the past few decades, so these children used to have a lifespan expected– life expectancy of around maybe 20 years if they were lucky, and now with treatments and technology, the way it’s advanced, these patients, the adults can live into their 50s, 60s sometimes.”

Dr. Vargas said he will compete against 150 or so paddle boarders, testing his endurance both physically and mentally.

“The race itself takes you from the Bahamas, but you start at midnight,” Dr. Vargas said, “so half the race you do is in the darkness through the morning, and you start around midnight, and you’re hopeful to make landfall around 3, 4 o’clock the next afternoon.”

WINK asked Dr. Vargas what his family, including young boys, think of his participation.

“My wife thinks I’m crazy, but she knows who she married, and she kind of expects nothing less of me,” Dr. Vargas said. “My older son’s a little bit more of a worrywart, so he doesn’t want me to do it because he thinks I’m gonna get eaten by a shark, and the other two are just ready to go with me. They want to be on a paddleboard with me.”

It’s a solo mission with the potential to impact millions, and for that, Dr. Vargas is WINK’s Miracle Monday.

Dr. Vargas will stay on the board the entire time, but a safety boat will follow along with another physician, a pharmacist and two fishing captains on board.

The competition begins on June 25.

If you are interested in helping, you can donate to Dr. Vargas’ fundraiser by visiting his fundraising site.