By Land and By Air

of catching the disease. On my return to Halifax, one of the students had contracted Polio, although he could not remember any contact. We used to call into Ottawa for new cases, and made sure we were a long distance from Ottawa on the weekends, for we would have to pass in the car if we went near that area of Ottawa. As a result we were able to enjoy our weekends with a car and living expenses.

My office in Ottawa was opposite the head man in the Narcotics Division. We became good friends. He often called me into his office to show me the letters from doctors who were over-prescribing. If the letter was long, he claimed they were ”as guilty as Hell.” I learned there was a file on each doctor, and every prescription given was recorded, and graphs were kept on each doctor. I was surprised many years later, when I was Registrar and heard rumours of Dr. Frank Burke, I checked with Ottawa two days before the RCMP entrapped him. They gave me his report and said that he was only average in giving Narcotics.

During my stay in Ottawa, my older son was born. There was a new nurse on call in Payzant Memorial in Windsor, NS, and she marked the block which said boy or girl, thinking if it was not a girl, she would mark it off. They called my mother-in-law, reported it a girl. Friend Herring and Sidney Stewart, who was working in Ottawa, went with me to celebrate the arrival of a girl. The next day I was informed that the baby was a boy, and we went out for another celebration. When we were having a good time, the thought came to me, ”Why could they not tell the difference between a boy and a girl?” My whole evening was shot. Not until I got a letter from my wife was I given the cause of the error. How much sorrow can be caused by a slight mistake in medicine, especially reporting and history taking.

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