Concern
By enrico
- 511 reads
Concern
A doctor who works at the same hospital in Newark as our neighbor, Dr.
Tetwhiler, was known for saving limbs doomed to amputation. In perhaps
ten cases that other doctors called hopeless, Dr. Tetwhiler's colleague
had persevered so that the patients retained the leg or the arm they
had been told they would lose. Very rewarding work, the successful
doctor told Tetwhiler. But several days ago the doctor overheard
another doctor and a nurse discussing a recent case involving a former
patient of his, a man who was convinced he needed his leg amputated but
showed only signs of good health. Tetwhiler's colleague and the man had
had several meetings over a period of months. The doctor had assured
the patient that the leg was fine and that there was certainly no need
for amputation. The doctor recommended that the patient begin an
exercise regimen to enhance his appreciation of the human body and left
the case as solved. On this day, however, the doctor stopped and
listened in horror as the nurse described the case of a man, his former
patient, who shot his own leg with a shotgun and came into the ER
begging for it to be cut off. They had no choice but to cut off the
destroyed limb. The doctor was so appalled by this turn of events that
today he went to the man's house in an attempt to find the reason
behind this crime. When he arrived he found the man gardening a small
plot in the back of the house. Though he had prepared to say a few
things in reference to the loss, indeed imagined himself insisting that
the gunshot had been accidental, the doctor could not speak a word when
he drew up close to his former patient, for all he saw was a happy
man.
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