Word: patients
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...people, on an average, die in the U.S. each year from rabies, but almost everyone has a chilling fear of the disease, and with good reason: once it takes hold, it invariably ends in a horrible sequence of delirium, paralysis and death. The only way to save a patient bitten by a rabid animal is to give him a prompt injection of vaccine which kills the disease before it is fully developed...
...unseen but terrifyingly powerful bombardment lasted for three minutes and 20 seconds while Laughlin nursed his controls. When the machine's electrical brain reported that the prescribed dosage of 100 roentgens had been delivered to the patient, it shut itself off. "O.K.," said Laughlin, "that's it." Thus the University of Illinois unveiled its betatron, the first of such power to be used in the U.S. for medical treatment.* Its advantage over earlier X-ray producers, most of which generate no more than a sixtieth of its power, is in the penetrating power of its high-speed, ultra...
...betatron's first patient, who is 72, had cancer of the larynx, rooted about an inch beneath the skin. It was bigger than a golf ball and was spreading to the lymph glands in his neck. He had spent hours at a time racked by uncontrollable coughing. His sense of taste was gone. And he was losing weight. The cancer was too far advanced to be operated on. Unchecked, it would grow until it killed him by strangulation...
High Hopes. If Radiologist Harvey's estimate is right, every day for the next two to three weeks more & more cancer cells in and around the patient's larynx will have their nuclei killed by the betatron's almost irresistible rays. Patients with deep-seated malignancies in other parts of the body also started treatment this week. Soon Dr. Harvey should be able to tell whether medicine's new weapon, which now costs $85,000, shows promise. If the answer is favorable, high-powered, penetrating X rays may be used in about 10% of cancer cases...
...King suggests that instead of frightening the patient and browbeating her into passing up favorite foods, the doctor should let her eat what she wants, soothe her fears and give her "a mature, optimistic orientation." His clincher: uninhibited, free-fed women have an easier time in labor...