| |
Frank Cotolo
April 24, 2014 |
| |
|
In another one of many public appearances I continue to make in this career of mine that is yet to
be categorized in the annals of careers, I went to Chicago to speak to members of the American
Medical Association (AMA). Here is the text of that speech.
|
| |
|
Good afternoon doctors and interns. It is good to see a mixture of men and women doctors and
interns because when I was born it was a rarity to see women doctors or women interns and I know
that even though when I was born I could not tell the difference.
|
| |
|
But so much was different in the nineteen hundreds. Medicine has come a long way in the new
millennium and as doctors you should all know that. Of course a lot of you are new doctors and all
of you interns are not doctors at all so you would have to have read history to know all the
changes that have occurred in your field over the decades. I hope that in doctor school you had
history classes about the history of your field because it would be a shame if you knew more about
other professions than you do about your own profession.
|
| |
|
For the most part, though, doctors have always tried to save lives and many did save lives, even
when the technology of your profession was lacking the tools it has today. This reminds me of a
story a doctor told my father just before his death - my father, that is, not the doctor.
|
| |
|
His name was Dr. Dreadnaught and he said that he had to take X-rays of a patient once and the
X-rays took a few days to be ready for viewing. Dr. Dreadnaught told his patient to come back in a
few days. When the patient came back to hear what the doctor had seen in the X-rays, Dr.
Dreadnaught told the patient that the X-rays came back negative. The patient laughed and said,
"Doctor, all X-rays are negative."
|
| |
|
Doctor humor goes back as far as the Egyptian dynasties and one day I hope someone collects all of
those jokes and publishes a book of them. I also hope that the book is translated into English and
when it is I hope it doesn't lose its comic value in the translation.
|
| |
|
Back to the women doctors and interns. Wait. Did you hear the one about the surgeon who had his
work cut out for him? Anyway, back to women doctors. I believe that over time women doctors will
outnumber men doctors, primarily because women live longer than men. That is a great reason for a
man to have a woman doctor; to find out how to live longer. And it brings up the interesting
question about sex change operations, that is, a man becoming a woman. Does he live longer after
he changes his sex? Should all men have a sex change so they may live longer lives?
|
| |
