This is not a pleasant story; but it’s one which needs to be told. What I am about to tell you happened nearly forty years ago, and, to my knowledge, is no longer done. But in those times, there seemed no other way.
A collapsed lung was strangling the life from my patient. I inserted a chest tube, and life was restored. As they wheeled him to his room, he thanked me. I nodded. But, the credit belongs somewhere else; not to me. Every patient I have helped with this procedure is not a little indebted to a creature they never knew. The thanks should go to a being whose name I never knew. He may not have even had one.
He might have lived a good life… but I doubt it. He might have been a constant companion to a child or a delight to his owner. But I doubt he ever had the chance.
He was a mongrel dog; russet-colored and pared to an unhealthy leanness by cruel circumstance. He lay on a table sedated, anesthetized, and attended closely by a vet to see that he in no way suffered. It was on his body, I learned this art. Afterwards, he would be put to sleep. That I now know how to place a chest tube is due to this poor, anonymous creature.
Afterwards, one of my fellow physicians placed her hand on the dog’s leg and closed her eyes. I looked on and fought a deep, lip-biting sorrow. There are many dogs in the world; he was just one of a many-numbered pack . . . That truth helped me not at all.
In the ideal of diagnostic medicine, a patient comes to us with a problem. Physicians bring to the encounter a knowledge set which has two parts: we either know what’s wrong and how to react, or we know methods to unravel the puzzle. Our knowledge base comes of daily study: books, CD’s, meetings, journals, our colleagues, our patients, and, years ago, the unfortunate necessity of occasionally working live, but pain-free animals.
As you grow older, you realize how important it is to hold certain memories close. I think of him sometimes. I hope he now romps in greener fields than he ever knew here; romps under the smiling eyes of his Master.
Watch for Lucky’s books “The Oath of Hippocrates” and ‘A Journey Long Delayed” available locally and on-line.
By Lucky Garvin [email protected]