A hazard of medicolegal work…
So in my 2.5 years in Baltimore as a medical examiner, many of our autopsied cases came right off the street. With all the strange aromas, nothing was worse that an unbathed alcoholic who didn’t quite make it found on those streets. They were a sad, sad element of life in Baltimore in the mid-70s
One day as I entered one lung of an alcoholic in an autopsy, something discolored and ugly opened up in the lung. I was concerned but hoped as I worked in public health, that it was just another “bullet” I had dodged.
As I should, I followed up in those mid-70s with a PPD skin test to establish if I might have TB. It was positive but in that case, Thank God, it simply indicated my immune system had worked effectively. No lesion could be identified. Nonetheless I took the drug INH for a year…
View original post 56 more words
Pilgrim on a Long, Long Journey 