| |
During the first two decades of this
century, a great number of babies under one
year of age wasted away in hospitals and
children's institutions and died from
unknown causes. In some institutions it was
customary to enter the condition of all
seriously sick infants as "hopeless" on
admission cards.
Among the doctors who were confronted with
infant mortality daily was Dr. Fritz Talbot
of the Children's Clinic in Dusseldorf. Dr.
Talbot had uncommon success in dealing with
sick children. For many years, as he made
his rounds, he would be followed from ward
to ward by groups of interns seeking new
ways of handling children's diseases.. |
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
One such intern was Dr. Joseph Brennermann,
who told this story.
"Many times we would come across a child for
whom everything had failed. For some reason
the child was hopelessly wasting away. When
this would happen, Dr. Talbot would take the
child's chart and scrawl some indecipherable
prescription. In most of the cases, the
magic formula took effect and the child
began to prosper. My curiosity was aroused
and I wondered if the famous doctor had
developed some new type of wonder drug.
"One day, after rounds, I returned to the
ward and tried to decipher Dr. Talbot's
scrawl. I had no luck, and so I turned to
the head nurse and asked her what the
prescription was.
"'Old Anna,' she said. Then she pointed to a
grandmotherly woman seated in a large rocker
with a baby on her lap. The nurse continued:
'Whenever we have a baby for whom everything
we could do had failed, we turn the child
over to Old Anna. She has more success than
all the doctors and nurses in this
institution combined.'"
|
|
You have two choices now:
1. Delete this.
2.
Click here to send this page to a friend!
Hope you will choose 2. I did.
|
