Summary:
Doctor’s Choice is a collection of 16 stories by
authors from and well known in the early-to-mid 20th century. I offer four summaries of the stories that I
am considering using in teaching.
“Rab and His Friends”
by John Brown, MD, was originally published in 1859 and is sometimes referred
to as young adult literature. It was one of Brown’s most successful works. The
story is told in the voice of a medical student, “John”, and begins with his
reminiscence of six years earlier when he first met the old “huge mastiff” Rab,
and his “master”, a carrier named James Noble. John, who had befriended Rab
during medical school, next sees him ‘one fine October day’ as he was leaving
the hospital. Rab was with James who was bringing his wife, Ailie, to see a
doctor because “she’s got a trouble in her breest…” (p.37). Examination showed
no doubt that the tumor needed to be removed. Having survived the breast amputation (without
anesthesia and observed by the narrator and his fellow students), four days later
Ailie’s delirium set in. With James by her side, and with tender caring, Ailie
died a few days later. Soon after James took to bed “and soon died…The grave
was not difficult to reopen. A fresh fall of snow had again made things white
and smooth; Rab once more looked on, and slunk home to the stable” (p.46). The
next week John sought out the new carrier who took over James’s business to ask
about Rab. The new carrier tried to brush him off—but admitted he killed the
dog, explaining that the dog was inconsolable and that he had to “brain him wi’
a rack-pin….I could do naething else”(p.46). John thought it a fitting end… “His teeth
and his friends gone, why should he keep the peace and be civil?”
“Miracle of the Fifteen Murderers” by Ben
Hecht, was originally published in Collier’s Magazine in 1943. The narrator of
this story passes along a tale he heard from an elderly friend, a physician who
was one of 15 eminent physicians that formed a secret group meeting quarterly
to discuss the ‘medical murders’ they had committed. The group had been meeting
for the past 20 years, but had disbanded due to the outbreak of WWII—“The
world, engaged in re-examining its manners and soul, had closed the door on
minor adventure” (p.139). The last meeting of the group is the subject of the
tale and it describes how the newest member, a young surgeon, tricked the group
into providing the diagnosis for a patient this doctor, Samuel Warner, was
struggling to care for. Warner explained that his patient—who he had
befriended--, a young Negro boy of “seventeen, was an amazingly talented [poet
whose work] “was a cry against injustice. Every kind of injustice. Bitter and
burning,” (p.149). After working hard for 2 weeks to save his life, and
realizing that his diagnosis of ulcerative colitis was wrong, Warner’s scheme
(a feigned medical murder) got the eminent physicians to the diagnosis: a
fishbone had caused the perforation that was threatening the poet’s life. Grabbing
his hat and coat—and after thanking the doctors for the diagnosis- Warner is
off to save his patient’s life. A half-hour later, rising to the call as well,
the other 14 doctors joined Warner in the operating room to view the
life-saving procedure, allowing one of the eminent physicians to remark with a
soft cackle, that “the removal of this small object….will enable the patient to
continue writing poetry denouncing the greeds and horrors of our world” (p.
154).
There was no original publication date for “The White Cottage” by L.A.G. Strong, but it has been anthologized since at least 1940. The narrator tells of a visit by a locum town-based doctor to an island nearby to help a woman give birth at her home. The perilous journey from the town to the island with the expectant father and a neighbor as navigators and rowers ends with all thoroughly drenched from a storm after nearly capsizing. Realizing that the doctor has no dry clothes to change into, the couple offers him the husband’s flannel nightgown and a blanket. The doctor, after checking the wife and estimating a number of hours of labor ahead, goes to the living room by the fire. Fearing he’s still chilled, the couple decides to make room in their bed for him. After hesitating for a moment, he climbs in next to the husband. After some small talk and an ‘order’ for the soon-to-be mother to
lay on her side and have her husband rub her back, the doctor begins to
assess the situation he finds himself in: “Right living was not obedience
to rule: it was a balance, renewed each instant, like a tight-rope
walker’s, a tension between opposites. Here, for a moment, in this bed, in this cottage, in this tiny focus of life, beneath storm and towering sky,
was wisdom. Men did not possess wisdom. It possessed them. Like a light,
it flickered here and there over the vast dark mass of humanity,
illuminating briefly every now and then a single understanding. Here, for the moment, it possessed him; and by its light he gave thanks, and loved all men” (p. 249). After a successful delivery (and some celebratory drink
and breakfast), the doctor was off to his town with a promise to return for a checkup. His new friend demurred. “No trouble man. It’s a
pleasure—besides being my plain duty. Mind you, she’ll be right as rain.
But I’ll come” (p.252), responded the doctor. After a silent handshake,
and suddenly finding “eyes full of tears … he clambered into the boat” (p.
252).
“Doc Mellhorn and the Pearly Gates”
by Stephen Vincent Benet was originally published in 1929. The story begins
with an in-depth description of a humble, impish (having mastered many
diversionary tricks), and independent small town doctor and the place he
practices, but quickly moves to much larger realms through Benet’s use of
magical realism. Doc Mellhorn has died but has not fully landed in his final
destination, heaven, and decides to spend a bit of time in hell first because
of the perceived lack of opportunity to practice medicine in heaven (and an
off-putting encounter with an overly officious clerk at the pearly gates). When
he gets to hell, he gets to work on setting up a clinic—“mostly sprains,
fractures, bruises and dislocations, of course, with occasional burns and
scalds… [reminding him] a good deal of his practice in Steeltown, especially
when it came to foreign bodies in the eye” (p.23). After a number of months,
and a confrontation with another officious bureaucrat, Doc got back on the road
to his original destination, giving him some time to think about whether he was
deserving of that final abode. “I’m a doctor. I can’t work miracles,” he
thought. “Then the black fit came over him and he remembered all the times he’d
been wrong and the people he couldn’t do anything for” (p.28). Landing for a second time at the pearly gates,
he finds family waiting for him with assurances that there’s more than just
eternal peace in heaven. “They wouldn’t all arrive in first-class shape,"
(p.31) explains his Uncle Frank, assuring him that there will be lots of work
for him to do. Uncle Frank also lets him know that a delegation is coming to
meet him since Doc had “broken pretty near every regulation except fire laws, and
refused the Gate first crack” (p. 32). Then, out of a phalanx of famous doctors
(from a list that Doc began to create during his first, shortened visit),
appeared—with “winged staff entwined with two fangless serpents”-- his top
choice--- Aesculapius. “The bearded figure stopped in front of Doc Mellhorn.
Welcome brother, said Aesculapius. It’s an honor to meet you, Doctor, said Doc
Mellhorn. He shook the outstretched hand. Then he took a silver half dollar
from the mouth of the left-hand snake” (p.32). ….I laughed out loud—and
couldn’t imagine a better ending.
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