By Land and By Air 
     
    
   
   
    
     intern. She was all swollen up and in severe pain. It was 
     
     almost impossible to find veins and she was given fluids 
     
     in the subcutaneous tissue. Her kidneys had completely 
     
     stopped working. The doctors were treating her for some 
     
     rare disease and getting nowhere. That night I called to 
     
     see her, just as the priest was leaving the room, and she 
     
     was crying, so I inquired what was the trouble. She said, 
     
     ”I thought I was pregnant, and I went to the drugstore 
     
     and was given a pill to insert." She had not told this in her 
     
     history, but was feeling guilty that she had not told the 
     
     priest. We had a Dr. Lender in Psychiatry, who we always 
     
     liked to sit with at meal time, and find out all our tough 
     
     answers. He seemed to be a storehouse of knowledge. Not 
     
     calling up the medical men, I called him up at home and 
     
     explained the pill with the skull and crossbones on, and he 
     
     said “Check for mercury.” I recall that old pill. 
     
    

    
     Although we now knew the cause of her trouble, 
     
     she kept getting worse, several days without kidney 
     
     function. I went into her room on the eleventh day and 
     
     she was again crying with all the tubes, which I had so 
     
     much trouble inserting, removed. She said the doctor and 
     
     the priest had visited her and had told her they could 
     
     not help her, and she was going to die. She said she was 
     
     feeling better that day and was just getting courage. I said, 
     
     ”If you are going to die, give me an idea of the food you 
     
     would like and I’ll get it for you,” which reminded me of 
     
     the last meal before going to the gallows. As it turned out, 
     
     the doctors did not wait long enough. The next day the 
     
     kidneys started to work, passing copious water; all her 
     
     swelling disappeared, and she went home in a c0uple of 
     
     days completely cured. The ability to diagnose a disease 
     
     is the most important factor which the doctor has. Once 
     
     diagnosed, one can usually go to the medical books and 
     
     find the treatment. In fact, now one just has to go to the 
     
    
   
   
    
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