A. Stewart MacDonald D.F.C., MD. C..M.

I arrived back in Halifax for 4th year which was a clinical year where we took histories, and had medical clinics on interesting cases. I recall one medical teaching period when the professor was explaining gallbladder disease. The next class they presented a case of a patient with an abdominal pain. The Dean of Medicine was having a class and he asked for a diagnosis. In my ignorance that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing I spoke up and gave a diagnosis which Ijust came from learning about for the first time, biliary dyskinesia. The Dean seemed impressed and asked me to explain my diagnosis, which was easily expressed. He said that I could be right. A couple of weeks later, we were doing ward rounds and he looked around and said, ”Would Mr. MacDonald like to sneak under the bed while I tell the rest that that one had gallbladder disease?"

In 4th year we were getting ready for our intern year, when we would have much more responsibility in diagnosis and treatment of patients. No longer would we be getting off at 5:00 pm. In 4th year we worked more with the interns and residents, and we got little, if any, time in the operating room or delivery room, but had numerous clinics at the Victoria General Hospital and Camp Hill Hospital, where interesting cases were shown.

It was in December 1951, while I was in 4th year, my sister Irene called at my home in the north of Halifax. She was with her husband, coming from Dartmouth where they were living. She started coughing up blood in the afternoon, having been sick for three days. I went with them directly to the Victoria General Hospital. She seemed to be quite short of breath. An oxygen mask was put on her and she was dead 20 minutes after she arrived at the hospital. She was only 30 years old and had two children. It was quite a shock.

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