A SURGEON’S VIEW OF LIFE.

A SURGEON’S VIEW OF LIFE. Forty years ago today I was in Massachusetts General Hospital recovering from kidney surgery. I had a great doctor, and I revered him. I told people I might have become a doctor if I had met him earlier. My doctor came in to see me at about six in the morning. I was already awake because my brother had called me about five thirty with the news that Bobby Kennedy had been shot. I remember two things about that morning. I noticed that my surgeon’s hands shook. (This sounds dramatic, but I mentioned this to a friend who was a medical student, and he said the shaking hands were no problem. “It’s not brain surgery [it wasn’t]. He simply steadies his wrist with his other hand. What you’re getting is his knowledge.”) My doctor asked me how I was doing. I told him that I was fine, but very upset with the news from a few minutes before about Bobby Kennedy. I remember what he said: “That’s in the past.”