Page 14 - Boca Club News - February '24

Page 14, Boca Club News
Medical Matters: The House Call

By Richard Nagler, M.D., a member she didn’t have a thermometer. I reached into my doctor’s drycleaner the next day, deliver them to my home and would
of Broken Sound Club and retired bag and retrieved one, which I lubricated with a little Vaseline retrieve her husband’s clothes.
physician. After graduating from the and then gently inserted it into the baby’s rectum. I proceeded When I returned home my wife took one look at me and
University of Pennsylvania and New to examine the baby, finding nothing specific. He was alert began laughing hysterically. She asked me what in the world
York University’s School of Medicine, and his color was good. happened to me and laughed even harder at the story.
Dr. Nagler served his internship and When I attempted to remove the thermometer I was In 1957 there was a raging epidemic of the Flu. The
residency at Baltimore City Hospital shocked when only half of it came out. I was beside myself, number of calls from people suffering from the disease was
and Johns Hopkins. He followed that but I retained my composure and reassured the mother that overwhelming. On my first call I saw an elderly woman
with a Fellowship in Gastroenterology this had happened before, and that the other half of the extremely ill with classical Flu symptoms. She was feverish,
at Yale University School of Medicine, and was then Chief thermometer would come out with the baby’s next bowel lethargic, dehydrated and needed IV fluids. I advised the
of Gastroenterology at Fitzimmons General Army Hospital movement. I treated the baby for a minor viral infection and family to take her to a local hospital ER for treatment. As I left
in Denver. He returned to the Yale Medical School for one told the mother to call me in the morning. To my everlasting there were at least a dozen people standing outside pleading
year as an Assistant Professor of Medicine before opening relief she informed me that the baby passed the remaining with me to see family members who were very ill with the
his own successful private practice in Internal Medicine thermometer without incident and was much better. Flu. Before I could respond I was approached by two state
and Gastroenterology. During that time, he also served for After that frightening initial experience I wondered what troopers who advised me that my car was being impounded
ten years as Chief of Medicine at Huntington Hospital in I would encounter next, hoping that future calls would all because I had expired New York license plates. I knew I
Huntington, N.Y. be routine and easy for me to deal with. One call involved a was guilty because I didn’t want to get Maryland plates with
After graduation from medical school I served one year as seven-year-old girl who had bronchitis for whom I prescribed only a few months left before I would be leaving the state to
an intern in medicine at a combined program with Baltimore an antibiotic and cough medicine. I reassured the parents that continue my training. I hadn’t renewed my New York plates
City Hospital and Johns Hopkins. I was on call every other she would be fine within a few days. When I told them that because I didn’t know where I would be the following year.
night and weekend with chronic sleep deprivation for which my fee was seven dollars the mother excused herself and Despite the pleas of the people standing by I was advised
I received $50 a month including meals, but only when on went to another room. She returned with a ceramic piggy that my car would be towed away and impounded. It would
duty. I leave it to your imagination what the food in a city bank in one hand, a hammer in the other hand and proceeded only be released after I paid a fine and registered it. They
hospital was like. to smash the piggy bank with all the pieces, including many drove me home. You can imagine what my wife thought
My wife worked at the same hospital as a laboratory quarters cascading to the floor. While I stood there in awe, when she saw me getting out of a police car. After I explained
technician for $250 a month. Our rent for a small furnished she picked up 28 of them and handed me seven dollars in what happened she told me that there were over 30 calls for
apartment was $95 a month and our Chevy ran on regular gas quarters and thanked me for coming. me. I was unable to respond because I had no car. What to
at 25 cents a gallon. Somehow, we managed to make ends One night I was called out to see a teenager with do? I decided to ask one of my interns who lived in the same
meet. severe pain in his left ear. At the time there was a series of apartment complex if I could borrow his car. The problem
The following year, I became an assistant resident in thunderstorms with torrential rains. I arrived at a home which was that it had expired New Jersey plates. Nevertheless, he
medicine. I was on call every third night and weekend with was set well back from the road on a hill. It was very dark let me take it and I was able to respond to the calls without
a raise in salary to $125 a month. At that time I was advised and as I stepped out of my car I slipped and fell face down being apprehended again. I can only imagine what would
by other, more advanced residents that I could moonlight in a large puddle of muddy water. I was covered with mud have happened to me if I was spotted again.
on my free nights and weekends covering many of the local from head to toe. I walked up the hill and rang the doorbell. Making these house calls provided me with welcome
practitioners making house calls for which the fee was seven A middle-aged couple took one look at me and asked what additional income to supplement my meager salary of $125
dollars. They assured me I was trained well enough to handle happened and if I was alright. The woman took me by the a month. But it did so much more. It gave me invaluable
any medical problems. hand and ushered me to a bedroom where she insisted that I experience that would serve me well in my future medical
My first case was a call from a distraught mother who remove my clothes and take a shower. The husband offered practice. But it also made me appreciate how important the
said her four-month-old child had a fever and refused to eat. me a complete change of clothes, which were much too large, doctor-patient relationship is and to realize that there are
When I arrived the father greeted me warmly and ushered but I was in no position to complain. good, respectful, appreciative people in this world who made
me into the nursery where the mother was holding a crying I proceeded to examine their 16-year-old son who had an me feel that what I was doing as a doctor meant something
baby in her arms trying to comfort him. I asked her what the obvious ear infection. I prescribed an antibiotic and Tylenol. and that my dreams of being an effective healer would be
baby’s temperature was; she said she didn’t know because The woman assured me that she would take my clothes to a realized.