Letters 14
The end of 1947 begins with the first of Lee's three years at Church Home and Hospital
[Lee has graduated from Hopkins, married Tissie and is now an intern at Church Home]
July 6, 1947
My first week as an intern at Church Home has been the most wonderful and satisfying of all my medical weeks in Baltimore! There is a very warm easy atmosphere here which is probably due to its Christian background. Church Home also enjoys the reputation of having the best nursing service in the city. The nurses can't seem to do enough for patients and staff alike. They always stand when a doctor enters a room, a ceremony I'm not used to, and it helps my humble ego no end.
The other ten people on the house staff are grand boys, and the visiting physicians represent the best schools in the country. One of the grand old characters is Dr. Guy Hunner, now 85, who practically grew up with Hopkins and taught there for 20 years. He still attracts patients like flies. Then there is Dr. Cullen, disciple and successor of Hopkins' famous Dr. Howard Kelly, still operating here at the age of 80. It's impossible to overestimate my privilege to associate with men like these.
In addition to the usual surgery we get to see a lot of eye work. One of the men I assist is the very gentleman who invented the sutures which are used in the most successful cataract operations today, Dr. Angus Maclean.
I feel spiritually cared for too. As I mentioned before, it is an Episcopalian hospital, and at its center is a lovely little chapel. The chaplain, who used to be a missionary in Liberia, is quite a genuine person. The services are beamed primarily to the 40-odd ladies of the "Home" part of the hospital.
The chaplain seeing me in the back row last Sunday exerted himself for my benefit. It was a good sermon too, and I warned him of a weekly responsibility in that direction. It may be the only service I can attend in my 12 months here, and the hour of worship and prayer will provide a good tonic for me. Doctors need such things too though they notoriously hate to take then!
December 28, 1947
The future maps itself out, not always according to my hopes and plans, but for the best, I'm sure.
Feeling the need for more experience in Medicine, some time ago I applied for and obtained an appointment as Assistant Resident in Medicine for next year. There is so much one wants to take advantage of, how is one to know where to stop!
I have kept two considerations in mind: 1. What am I planning to be? 2. What are the conditions under which I shall work? I see my way bettor now after a long talk with Uncle Lee and Dr. Forman not long ago. They pointed out that my work, for a few years at least, will be general hospital work. The typical mission hospital has limited facilities and personnel. Since surgery is definitely limited to ones "supporting cast", I have wondered if it would be wise to take an extra year of Surgery here, beyond Medicine. Even at Church Home a skilled neuro-surgeon cannot do a certain brain operation he is capable of for lack of equally skilled assistance and the extremely delicate aftercare for the patient. If I were the finest surgeon in the world what could I do with the limited facilities of a mission hospital?
Well, perhaps it is enough to have studied at the finest school in America and to have had a measure of surgical experience under some of the finest men. I must begin to use or lose what I have. Dr. Forman thinks my degree in Public Health can wait till my first furlough.
The road ahead unrolls only a little at a time, and it is just as well that we cannot see, or fear, the hardships and tragedies that are our mortal lot. The Lord is with us. Even as this New Year dawns we shall neither worry nor fear because:
"He maketh clear as day the darkest midnight,
Guiding the traveller who shall trust in Him
Safe through impenetrable forests
And over trackless mountains."