Lets call him Dr. L
When I was a senior resident, life was way difficult. We use to work like an attending with in house call. I use to freak out if I get a pregnant patient with major complication! Dr. L was a maternal-fetal senior resident in our hospital. An extremely hardworking, well liked, mild mannered nice fellow! He always bailed me out!! I met him accidentally couple of times since I left residency and always noticed that he has lost weight - but didn't pay much attention.
Last week I was in a medical conference. As I was walking to a lunch corner with my colleague, I saw him on wheelchair. First, I thought he may have broke his bone but it was worse than that. We recognized each other. He has lost most muscle mass. He had hard time talking. His wife was pushing his chair. He has developed ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). I chatted with him for few minutes. He told me that he is now disable but he attend meetings to get out of home...
As I walked away, my friend said his favorite words: "Life is a Bitch." I replied with my favorite line: "Yaap! so F*** her before you lose it."
When I was a senior resident, life was way difficult. We use to work like an attending with in house call. I use to freak out if I get a pregnant patient with major complication! Dr. L was a maternal-fetal senior resident in our hospital. An extremely hardworking, well liked, mild mannered nice fellow! He always bailed me out!! I met him accidentally couple of times since I left residency and always noticed that he has lost weight - but didn't pay much attention.
Last week I was in a medical conference. As I was walking to a lunch corner with my colleague, I saw him on wheelchair. First, I thought he may have broke his bone but it was worse than that. We recognized each other. He has lost most muscle mass. He had hard time talking. His wife was pushing his chair. He has developed ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). I chatted with him for few minutes. He told me that he is now disable but he attend meetings to get out of home...
As I walked away, my friend said his favorite words: "Life is a Bitch." I replied with my favorite line: "Yaap! so F*** her before you lose it."
2 comments:
Yeah, having seen a lot of such patients I know how it feels. A neighbor and my colleague in hospital ended up with the same and he had unorthodox treatments also He was from Far east himself. that is however a relentlessly progressive disease. British prefer to call it motor neuron disease rather than amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Its just sad!
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