The surgical team left the old man’s bedside as the ward-round came to an end.
“That chap’s really not with it is he?”, said the Surgeon to his House Officer. “Perhaps we should get the medics to have a look at him. Do you think his state of confusion is acute or chronic?”.
The House Officer ferreted through a pile of old notes hidden beneath the ward-round trolley while the surgeon checked his watch. The old man’s notes were found and the thick file fell open on a faded clinic note written by a General Surgeon in 1965.
The house officer read the first line aloud, “This man is clearly a mental defective of some description.”
He looked up from the notes and said to the Surgeon, “I suspect its mostly chronic.”
The Surgeon nodded as he left the ward.
Ed Wynn in "The Perfect Fool," 1959. Photo by Sid Avery.
About Chris Nickson
The terms delirium or dementia are probably to complicated for surgeons. Ah well as long as they know were to cut he;)
Take care Dr Shock.