My definition of ‘heaven’ is the place where ghosts hang out together and enjoy each other's company.
We are living in a world in which the number of ghosts is high and that number is rising rapidly.
I think the most stunning creation of ghosts came with the Salk vaccine and infant child inoculations. Millions of people are alive because of those inventions. Millions of pharmaceutical ghosts.
The second great act of ghost creation was the transformation of the emergency room into trauma centers as a result of the medical improvements developed in the Vietnam War.
Then in the 1980’s came a rapid series of medical developments. I give credit for many modern ghosts to the breast cancer drug Tamoxifen. After that we got the Catheter Lab which has since saved millions including me.
Currently we're getting cures for hepatitis C which has affected several of my friends who were going to die. A number of friends have also survived because of organ transplants which have been improving for decades.
The most recent miracles drugs are effective against melanoma, some forms of leukemia and lung cancer. These last three are not yet in widespread use but they are going to produce a large population of ghosts to join us in the heaven of medical and surgical survivors.