I, like most people live day to day, passing along a chain of petty and momentous events throughout the day but not out of the ordinary daily life experienced by the people around me. But through having had an unusual trajectory into life, parental and family background, childhood experience, quirky personality, and exposure to momentous events in society and personally as a physician, scientist, and notorious eccentric. Although I will tell of a number of extraordinary “once in a lifetime” experiences, my focus will be to keep to those that I believe have universal human meaning, perhaps even a life’s lesson. I will keep each installment to between 600-1000 words so they can be read in less than 3-4 minutes. Longer stories will be told in a linked series of parts, each of the same ‘bite size’ portions.
I will initially try to group the stories by themes and sub-themes, within the categories such as “personal history”, “scientific discovery”, “greatest medical cases ever” “life lessons learned”. But I suspect in the breadth of time the readers will see the stories all coalesce by time-line, by theme and story line, into a single life story.
All in Carbon Monoxide
The argument ran along these lines: Humans expose themselves to CO frequently. For example, smoking tobacco, and driving a car.
“Joe…mummy…is not feeling…well…”
“So you showed it in dogs. How are you going to show that it can be done in humans?”
Ludwik: “Its not good enough”
“Why not?”
“Its an n of one”
“Sorry Joe, I don’t think that will work at all.”
It started with an interest in measuring bronchial* tone. The trachea* and the bronchi are not just passive tubes: they actively constrict and dilate.
In May 1944 21 year old Rachel Berneman was on a death march of prisoners leaving Auschwitz ahead of advancing Russians. Rachel was sleeping the same bunk with Hanna , who she believed was her last living relative.