Calling Dr. Kildare

I spent quite a few hours yesterday watching the 1960s doctor show, Dr. Kildare, on YouTube yesterday. What memories! This show for some reason (probably the work of the AMA who doesn't want us to remember what American medicine used to be like) is not generally available on DVD. For the youngesters out there, it used to be that for a small fee you could visit a doctor who would treat you and write a prescription for a medicine you could afford. This doctor treated just about anything and if he couldn't you went to a hospital where you stayed until you were better and left without becoming bankrupt or having to remortgage your house. You were actually admitted to the hospital EVEN IF YOU COULDN"T PAY ANYTHING because you were sick and hospitals were not in the business to make money, but to make you better.

Anyway, Dr. Kildare and Dr. Gillespie treated patients in this idealized environment with respect and compassion. The patients were PEOPLE, not diseases.

And there were actually these wonderful beings working in the hospital called NURSES. These kindly creatures, administered medicines, fed, bathed and even talked to the patients in their charge. I know this is a fact because I remember being in a hospital in the early 1970s and nurses gave you a BACK RUB every night. And they wore these cute little caps, too.

The last time I was a hospital patient about a year ago, I think I saw ONE nurse the entire three days I was there. It was a fleeting glimpse of a figure, so I am not 100% sure that is what it was. Instead some kind of patient care people zoomed in and out with medicine and other people dropped trays of food on the other side of the room. If you were bed ridden you were out of luck.

I spent the entire three days without a toothbrush, clean night gown or clean sheets. I finally went down to the gift store and bought myself a toothbrush despite being chased by a security guard, who told me that patients weren't allowed in the gift store.

Of course, there were down sides to the good old days of medicine. No CT or MRI scans or noninvasive treatments. Many times you had no idea what was wrong with you until it killed you. However, since I have no medical insurance I have no access to these miracles anyway. So I guess I would be better off back in the 1960s. At least I would get a back rub before I died!