Posted on 03/15/2006 10:55:13 AM PST by Former Fetus
Today, 52 years ago, my husband was born in a small hospital in rural South Carolina. As a mother myself, I can imagine how thrilled my mother in law was! However, her happiness was not going to last long. Her baby suffered from projectile vomiting and, during the next few weeks, he lost weight until, to use her words, “his arms and legs were as thin as sticks”.
The doctor, young and fresh from medical school, did not know what was causing the problem. One of the hospital nurses told my father in law that “he would not be watching this one grow up”. Finally the doctor had a consultation with one of his professors who told him there was nothing he could do and to “let nature take its course”.
The young doctor left town on a trip but could not get the sick baby out of his mind, so he turned around, returned to the hospital and told my in laws that he couldn’t promise them anything but he felt he had to try something. A nurse cut a lock of the baby’s hair and gave it to his mother, then the baby was taken into the OR. The way the doctor told the story years later, when he opened the abdominal cavity he saw the pyloric sphincter tight like a rubber band around the “stomach’s exit”. Amazed, he touched it with a scalpel and, just like magic, the sphincter relaxed! He closed up the incision, went to see the parents, and today this baby is 52 and the proud father of 2!
Excuse me for the vanity, but I have wished for years to meet that doctor (he’s dead now). His courage, in the face of insurmountable odds and the discouraging words from his professor, have gained my respect. He could have just “let nature take its course” and nobody would have thought any of it. After all, pyloric stenosis was not known then. As it was, he risked his budding career to save this little baby… I know one day I will meet him and thank him, and introduce our children to him. Thank you, Dr. Davis, you understood that the primary duty of a physician is to preserve life. And happy birthday, hubby!
Teary-eyed BTTT!
Great story and thanks for sharing. I'm hoping to find my birth parents and thank them for letting nature take it's course (which was a good thing in my case)!
Sad to think who would be on the receiving end of a law suit over this today.
Listen to the experts, they'll tell you what you can't do and why. Then do it. RAH
Never give up because someone tells you something is impossible, if you do, they will be right.
Perhaps not in humans, but it was in dogs! Dr. Alf White, the Yorkshire vet who wrote the "All Creatures" books under the pseudonym James Herriot, had a puppy patient whose owner kept bringing him in because he vomited every day and was dwindling to nothing.
White did everything he could think of (this was back in the late 1930s), but nothing helped. Then one day the puppy actually vomited in his presence--projectile vomiting as you describe--and he shouted at the owner, "Why didn't you tell me he does it like that???" He operated at once and corrected the pyloric stenosis, and the puppy recovered.
I suppose medical information just didn't travel that well from one doctor (especially of another species) to another back then. That said, I'm so happy your husband's smart young doctor figured out what was wrong and corrected it. Happy birthday to your husband!
God Bless you, your husband, and Dr. Davis.
Nice! Thanks.
What a great story and a great tribute. Dr. Davis may be gone, but he undoubtedly has descendents or other family who would be grateful to hear your moving story. Please try and track them down. Could you imagine what it would be like to have someone come to you with a story like that about your father or brother? It would be a priceless gift.
The fact that this happened in a small town should help narrow down your search.
my wife had it when she was born ( unusual, because usually the first born male gets it ) and my second born son had it....
Maybe. I don't know where you and your brother grew up, maybe pyloric stenosis was well known at big hospitals, university hospitals... but this was a tiny hospital in rural SC. Or maybe Dr. Davis' professor diagnosed the problem but the baby was too far gone by that time. I don't know enough details to be able to tell. My in-laws and Dr. Davis are dead and I have no way to find out. But the picture I was trying to draw was one of a young doctor, a few months into his first job, and a baby who wasn't expected to live. If he operated and the baby died, that was the end of the doctor's career in that community (can you imagine the gossip in a small town, "Dr. D. killed that baby"). On the other hand, if he did nothing, the baby would die but nobody could blame him since he was following advice. What to do? He left on a trip, at least his body did because his heart was still at the hospital. At some point he must have decided the h**l with his career, he couldn't just stand by and let his patient die. That is not what real doctors do. So he bit the bullet, returned and the baby was healed. To me, given the circumstances, he was a real hero. We all would be better off if we had doctors with less head knowledge and more compassion!
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