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One

Atsummer day the life of Three Counties Hospital ebbed and flowed like tide currents around an offshore island Outside the hospital the citizens of Burlington, Pennsylvania, perspired under a ninety-degree shade temperature with 78 per cent humidity Down by the steel mills and the rail yards, where there was little shade and no ther—if anyone had bothered to take it—would have been a good deal higher Within the hospital it was cooler than outside, but notpatients and staff only the fortunate or influential escaped the worst of the heat in air-conditioned rooms

There was no air conditioning in the ade Reynolds, reaching into her desk for her fifteenth Kleenex that , dabbed her face and decided it was time she slipped out to make another application of deodorant Miss Reynolds, at thirty-eight, was chief clerk in Adiene advertising As a result she had acquired a horror of being less than completely sanitary and in hot weather maintained a shuttle service between her desk and the woh, she decided, she must locate four patients for admission that afternoon

A few e slips had co that twenty-six patients were being sent home instead of the twenty-four Miss Reynolds had expected That, added to two deaths which had occurred during the night, meant that four new na list for immediate adton, a quartet of patients who had been waiting for this call either hopefully or in fear would now pack a few essential belongings and put their trust innow her sixteenth Kleenex, Miss Reynolds opened a file folder, picked up the telephone on her desk, and began to dial

More fortunate than the Ad treatment in the outpatient clinics, now in full session over in the opposite wing of thewhen their turn caeneral waiting roo their exclusive talents available free to those who couldn’t, or wouldn’t, afford the private-patient fees charged on the specialists’ ho don

Old Rudy Her when his family bullied him into it, sat back and relaxed in cool comfort as Dr McEwan, the ear, nose, and throat specialist, probed in search of the cause of Rudy’s growing deafness Actually Rudy didn’t mind the deafness tooelse or work faster, he found it an advantage But Rudy’s eldest son had decided the old et his ears looked at, and here he was

Dr McEwan fretted irritably as he withdrew the otoscope froht help a little if you washed some of the dirt out,” he remarked acidly

Such ill hu, however, his wife had carried to the breakfast table a running fight about household expenses which they had started the night before, causing hie in such a teht rear fender

Now Rudy looked up blandly “What was that?” he inquired

“I said itwhether the old ht be due to senility or a s case, and already his professional interest was outweighing his irritability

“I didn’t hear you,” the old ain

McEwan raised his voice “It was nothing! I said forget it!” At this htly ashamed of his own outburst

In the generala fresh cigarette from the stub of the last, looked over at the patient on the other side of his desk As he considered the case he felt a slight biliousness and decided he’d have to lay off Chinese food for a week or two; anyith two dinner parties co off this week, and the Gourmet’s Club next Tuesday, it shouldn’t be too hard to endure Deciding his diagnosis, he fixed his eye on the patient and said sternly, “You’re overweight and I’ too”

A hundred yards or so from where the specialists held court Miss Mildred, senior records clerk at Three Counties, perspired profusely as she hurried along a busythe discomfort, she moved even faster after a quarry she had just seen disappear around the next corner

“Dr Pearson! Dr Pearson!”

As she caught up with hiist paused Heover to the corner of his mouth Then he said irritably, “What is it? What is it?”

Little Miss Mildred, fifty-two, spinsterish, and five foot nothing in her highest heels, quailed before Dr Pearson’s scowl But records, fore “These autopsy protocols have to be signed, Dr Pearson The Health Board has asked for extra copies”

“Some other time I’m in a hurry” Joe Pearson was at his imperious worst

Miss Mildred stood her ground “Please, Doctor It’ll only take a et you for three days”

Grudgingly Pearson gave in Taking the forms and the ballpoint pen Miss Mildred offered hinatures “I don’t knohat I’ What is it?”

“It’s the Howden case, Dr Pearson”