Today was a very sad Memorial Day for me. I attended a memorial service for a very dear friend who passed away unexpectedly this past week, just one day after he and his wife had lunch with my wife and I.
John P**** (last name omitted) was a Colonial in the US Army medical corps, where he served with distinction at several locations, became a flight surgeon and was considered among the best head/neck surgeons in the nation. He earned many awards for his surgical techniques in ENT and eventually became a full professor of ENT surgery at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. I had the privilege of working with John at Hopkins when I directed the Cardio/Pulmonary Division, we became good friends, fished together, and kept in touch for nearly 40 years.
Just two years after we first met, in the 1970s, I developed a severe sinus infection that nearly took my life. I was hospitalized at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center by another ENT doctor, who after 10 days told my wife that he was sending me home to die and there was nothing more that could be done for me. That was on a Saturday morning. The pain in my head was beyond belief and had my wife not hidden my guns, I would have ended it all right there and then. Another ENT surgeon and good friend found out what had happened to me, called me at home and told me to call John P**** right away and gave me his private, home number. John had me transported back to GBMC, conferred with a neurologist, had an MRI and spinal tap performed immediately, then scheduled me for emergency surgery at 7 a.m. Sunday morning. He told Carol that if he would not have performed the surgery, I would not have been alive on Monday. I would have died of infectious meningitis.
It is difficult to comprehend a world without Dr. John P****. He touched so many lives in so many ways that most people never dream of. He was the surgeon that all the other surgeons went to if they needed a procedure in his area of expertise. The entire world will miss my dear friend, John P****.
Memorial day has always been a very special day for me, musically. When I was still working, I performed at a very special ceremony at an upscale Jewish retirement community. There were many, many vets living there, but one person stands out in my mind. He was a major in the Romanian Army during WWII and captured by the Germans and taken to Buchenwald. Just one day before he was scheduled to be gassed, Buchenwald was liberated. He was a 220-pound, 6'3" man when he was captured and just 90 pounds when he was liberated. When I met him, I saw the numbers tattooed on his forearm. He passed away on Memorial day on his 100th birthday and I performed at his memorial at the retirement community he called home for many years.
Thanks Chas, from another old swabbie,
Gary
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