Dec 7: The unexpected left jab....

Need to get to bed, so will post the Martha/Zerla update later this week--promise.

Week before last there was an envelope from Brigham Hospital. As I put it aside to deal with later it crossed my mind that sooner or later the news would be that one of my two doctors there would be retiring and my care being turned over to someone else. Dr. Cohn, my surgeon, is 70! Dr. Baughman, my cardiologist, in phenomenal shape and a real powerhouse, clearly in his 60s.

The letter wasn't what anyone could predict.

On Nov 16, while out for his morning jog, Dr. B was struck by a car and killed. In a further irony (the first being getting killed while practicing what he preached) it happened in Orlando, Fla, where he was attending the American Heart Association Conference. The news reports on-line say that he was pronounced dead on scene, so the trauma must have been massive. I hope he didn't feel anything.

Dr. Cohn sent me to Dr. B in 2006, when my boss RL figured out that even the brainiacs at Harvard could screw up and had mis-diagnosed me. Dr. B was the major force behind finding the obscure diagnosis. In the next year and a half he had to again figure out what was going on, and to him fell the task of discussing the recommendation of a heart transplant if the third surgery failed. He was brilliant, devoted to furthering education and patient care. He also had probably the driest sense of humor I've ever encountered.

The last time I saw him was Feb of this year, he was smiling more than I had ever seen him, taking into account all the office visits as well as daily visits after the thoracotomy and two heart surgeries done at BWH. His smiling was so prominent that I commented on it: "Dr. B, I've never you seen you smile this much." He responded "You've never given me a reason to smile. Now that echo (heart ultrasound) is a reason!"

Dr. Ken Baughman was one of two men most involved in saving my life. While I was just one patient amongst the thousands he had treated in his career, I was a unique case. Of small comfort to me is that at least he saw his work on me pay off, saw my improvement exceed his wildest expectations. How many hundreds of people also have him to thank for saving their lives? His role in my life was so vital, which is why the entire time typing this I've been crying.
While my visits there are down to yearly, I'm really going to miss seeing him.

This is another time that you just can't figure out if there really is a master plan to life. Because he was one of the really, really good guys.

More on the other subjects later, Laurie