Word: patiently
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Once, after spending only a moment with a new patient, the famed 19th century Edinburgh surgeon Joseph Bell correctly identified him as a noncommissioned officer who had just been discharged from a Highland regiment in Barbados. Bell, the real-life model for Sherlock Holmes, quickly noted the symptoms of elephantiasis, then prevalent in the West Indies. The man's speech was obviously that of a Scot. He had an air of authority, yet Bell concluded that he was not an officer. The reason: he did not remove his hat-a miscue that Bell knew could only have been committed...
...only seven years ago that Methodist Minister Bill Peckham organized one of the earliest clown ministries in Elkhart, Ind., among the young people of his parish. Calling themselves the Holy Fools, they began visiting hospitals, mental institutions and nursing homes, where they fanned out to chat with individual patients, occasionally performed short skits or magic tricks and made balloon sculptures. Often they just talked quietly with a patient, held or hugged him. As one clown explained: "Sometimes when we don't say so many words, the Word comes through more clearly." They had such success at reaching...
While I did indeed say that "so far, there is no scientific evidence that manipulation is better for a [back] patient than whistling Dixie" this comment by itself could be easily misunderstood. Permit me to add that the innumerable reports of favorable results from manipulation by skilled clinicians and grateful patients demand that this therapy be scientifically evaluated. In fact, such testimonials must be considered the preliminary evidence for suggesting the timeliness of a properly designed clinical trial of manipulation...
...steady stream of tiny electric prods to a sluggish heart, the defibrillator is programmed not to interfere with the heart's normal pattern. Rather, it responds only to severe aberrations in beat, and within 15 to 20 seconds administers a corrective shock (700 volts) that a conscious patient feels as a sharp tingle. If the heart does not resume normal beating, the defibrillator commands up to three more jolts. During the three-year life of its lithium batteries, it would be able to provide as many as 100 shocks...
Mirowski and his colleagues have implanted the device in six people, all of whom had already been stricken at least twice by episodes of cardiac arrest. Since their surgery, the patients have experienced a total of eleven cardiac incidents; during all but two of them, the machine restored normal heartbeat. One patient died even though the defibrillator worked faultlessly. The doctors shut down the device in a 16-year-old Pennsylvania boy because his heartbeat was so rapid that it triggered frequent shocks. The device is now being reprogrammed to accept the boy's quick pulse. The longest user...