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00:00My name is Conrad Steiner. I'm a doctor of medicine. Tonight's story has the title Physician
00:10Heal Thyself.
00:11Guardian of birth, healer of the sick, comforter of the aged. To the profession of medicine,
00:26to the men and women who labor in its cause, this story is dedicated.
00:41Our presentation tonight, the field of physiology, scientific study of tuberculosis. The object
00:45in point, a role of celluloid. Case in point, Jerome R. Colton, M.D., age 33, married, two
00:54children. A resident in internal medicine, Jerome Colton has just four months of duty
00:58at the hospital remaining before he opens his own office. But there's one thing standing
01:02in his way. A short, rot-shaped, acid-fast microorganism. It could kill him.
01:08Frederick's, Halverson, Marzani. Discharge tomorrow morning.
01:11Calling Dr. Colton. Calling Dr. Colton.
01:17Dr. Colton. Radiology? All right, put him on.
01:23Hello, Ben? Jerry Colton.
01:26What?
01:28Well, I was on my way to the wards.
01:32All right, I'll come down.
01:42Anybody calls, I'm going to Bermuda, back in an hour.
01:46Hi, doctor. Anyone for tennis?
01:48Young Dr. Radford, medical athlete.
01:50Two quick cents, how about it?
01:51Sorry, Dave. Wendy wants to see me down at X-ray.
01:54You know what it's about?
01:55No idea, why?
01:56Well, he wants to see me, too. And that creates a serious conflict. I want to get in a couple
02:00of cents before dark. Maybe you can handle it for both of us, huh?
02:04Okay, see what I can do.
02:06Hey, doctor.
02:07Pow!
02:16You wanted to see me, doctor.
02:18Oh, Jerry. Sit down a minute, will you? I'd like to show you something.
02:25How's it going? Working pretty hard?
02:27Ah, the usual. Twenty-six hours a day.
02:30Seems like the closer you come to the end of it, the more work there is.
02:33Uh-huh.
02:35These are last week's minis.
02:37Semi-annual physical for hospital personnel.
02:42Chest here, I want you to see.
02:44What do you make of it?
02:47Looks like an infiltration in the right upper lobe.
02:49What's an infiltration like that mean to you?
02:52Always suggestive of TB. Probably active.
02:57Why'd you want me to see the film? Somebody in the ward?
03:00It's you.
03:04You must have the wrong frame.
03:06I double-checked.
03:10It's not going to go away, Jerry.
03:13Well, it doesn't have to mean an infiltration.
03:15It might be an artifact.
03:17Excess silver nitrate deposit.
03:19Or faulty grain in the film.
03:21Possible.
03:25But you don't think so.
03:27No, I don't.
03:29I think you've got TB, Jerry.
03:33Dave Radford said you wanted to see him, too.
03:36He asked me to find out about it.
03:38Is it the same thing?
03:40I'll talk about that with Dave.
03:44But it could be almost anything.
03:46Virus pneumonia, pulmonary fibrosis.
03:49That's why you ought to have a large chest film made.
03:52Get Dr. Gerst back to take a look at it.
03:54He's in the hospital today.
03:56I can have the film ready for him before he leaves.
04:02Excuse me, doctor. I've got some work to do.
04:06Sorry, not in this hospital.
04:09I have to report what I find, Jerry.
04:12Your mini-film suggested a moderately advanced tuberculosis.
04:15Probably active.
04:18So I'm washed out.
04:19For the time being, yes.
04:21Your residency suspended.
04:23Pending final diagnosis.
04:39Oh, hey there.
04:41Take the wrong turn on the freeway and get lost.
04:45I'm sorry, honey. It was a last-minute emergency.
04:48Kid's asleep?
04:49Thank goodness.
04:50Should have heard Mike beefing about having to go to bed
04:53without saying goodnight to Daddy.
04:55He says that this is a sample of doctor's hours.
04:57He's going back to cattle rustling.
04:59I don't blame him.
05:01Our little nurse is still with us, though.
05:03Ann said they'd be back in a minute.
05:05Our little nurse is still with us, though.
05:07Ann said to be sure you saw the repair job she did on this fractured tibia today.
05:14You better wash up now.
05:16I'll go see if there's any dinner left unburned.
05:35Mary!
05:37Yeah, honey?
05:38A surprise for you on the dance.
05:58Well?
05:59What do you think?
06:01Well, what do you think of it?
06:03That's wonderful.
06:04I couldn't resist getting it.
06:06After all, you'll be putting it on your door in only 97 days.
06:09Oh, by the way, the real estate agent dropped in with the office leases.
06:12We can look them over tonight.
06:14If I ever get us through this meal.
06:18I'll get it.
06:25Well, Dave, come in.
06:27Greetings, Doctor.
06:28Well, Dave, come in.
06:29Greetings, fellow victim.
06:31How does it feel to be kicked in the face with the lousiest diagnosis ever made in the field of medicine?
06:36Where'd you hear about it?
06:38Wendry gave me the same kind of double talk you got.
06:40Only, he threw in a bonus with mine.
06:43Moderately advanced TB with a cavity.
06:49Sorry, Dave.
06:51For what?
06:52Ben Wendry can't see beyond the end of his photorentgut unit.
06:56You gonna let him get away with his TB diagnosis?
07:00Any other suggestions?
07:01You know what we've got as well as I do.
07:03Virus pneumonia.
07:04Can't be anything else.
07:05Boards are full of it this time of year.
07:07We've all been exposed to it time and time again.
07:10TB.
07:12When we get it cleaned up, we'll go to the board.
07:14We'll burn their ears off about this.
07:17You gonna try treating yourself?
07:19What's the matter with you, Jerry?
07:20Are you gonna let him yank six weeks out of your life while you moulder away in a sanatorium
07:24and just because Wendry can't tell the difference between a TB lesion and a pneumonia?
07:29Jerry.
07:36What's he saying? What about TB?
07:39I'm sorry. I thought maybe she knew.
07:44I'll check you later, Jerry.
07:48Talk to him, Marvin.
07:49Maybe you can make him see the light.
07:52Whoa.
08:09It's the minifilms on my last physical.
08:11An infiltration showed up and the chest film confirmed it.
08:15And you have tuberculosis?
08:17Not necessarily.
08:19Could be a lot of things.
08:20Pneumonia, pulmonary abscess, fungus infection, fibrosis.
08:24Could be any one of them.
08:25But how can they tell? How can they be sure?
08:28See if they can find the bug.
08:30I'm not raising any sputum.
08:32They'd have to make a gastric culture.
08:34Double check it by animal inoculation.
08:36What does that mean?
08:38Sanatorium.
08:40I'd have to stay anywhere from four to eight weeks until they got the results.
08:45I don't understand it.
08:47You're a doctor.
08:50You have no symptoms. You're not coughing.
08:52You haven't been around the TB wards recently.
08:55It doesn't make any difference.
08:58Down at the hospital we see hundreds of people every week.
09:00Any one of them could have active tuberculosis without symptoms in the early stages.
09:05They could pass it on.
09:11You said you'd have to go to the sanatorium.
09:13When?
09:15Tonight.
09:18Tonight?
09:19Why do you think I waited until the kids were asleep before I came home?
09:22Why do you think I wouldn't kiss you hello?
09:25Until this thing is checked out, I can't take any chances.
09:28Tonight.
09:34Well.
09:36If that's how it is, doctor.
09:39You'd better get into the kitchen and grab yourself a bite to eat.
09:42I'll get somebody to stay with the kids.
09:49♪
10:01The one inescapable evidence of active pulmonary tuberculosis
10:04is the isolation of virulent tubercle bacilli.
10:07In cases like that of Jerry Colton, where no sputum is being raised,
10:11the examination of gastric contents for the bacilli is essential.
10:14A sample of the gastric contents is aspirated and sent to the laboratory
10:18for culture and guinea pig inoculation.
10:21In four to eight weeks, the animal is examined for evidence of tuberculosis.
10:25A positive reaction is definite indication of the presence of the tubercle bacillus.
10:41Good morning, Jerry.
10:43You have the results of the gastric?
10:46We have it.
10:49All right, doctor. What's the prescribed therapy?
10:53You want to stay at the sanatorium?
10:56I have a choice.
10:58Of course.
10:59We can't force you to stay.
11:01You're free to walk out right now if you like.
11:04I'm not free to do anything.
11:06I'll just sit here and rot for two or three years.
11:09You're a physician, Jerry.
11:11What's your prescription?
11:13Complete bed rest.
11:14Immediate chemotherapy.
11:16I'll give the instructions.
11:17I'll give the instructions.
11:18Here are the instructions.
11:20The x-rays and tuberculin test reports on you and the children were absolutely negative,
11:50Mrs. Colton.
11:51And what about Jerry, doctor?
11:53How bad is he?
11:54Well, I imagine the simplest way to explain it is with the x-rays themselves.
12:00If you would just step over there, please.
12:08You can sit on the stool if you like, Mrs. Colton.
12:17I see these areas here and here.
12:20They show definite evidence of disease.
12:23It looks rather critical.
12:25Is it?
12:26It would be if it continued, but thanks to the routine chest examination, it was caught
12:32relatively early.
12:33How much difference does that make?
12:35He still has TB.
12:38Some years ago, it might have made very little difference.
12:43Disease of Florida, or galloping consumption, didn't always gallop.
12:50In a high percentage of cases, it would end in terminal tuberculosis, possibly after years
12:56of wasting away in some sanatorium.
12:59We still don't have a magic bullet to kill the TB bug, but we do have some very powerful
13:05ammunition.
13:06What?
13:07Streptomycin, for one, and PAS.
13:10Now with the use of these for chemotherapy and the necessary bed rest, in a case like
13:17Jerry's, we expect good results, generally within a year.
13:20And Jerry could be cured within a year.
13:23We like to call it that among ourselves, but for purposes of clinical classification, we'll
13:28say that he could be an inactive case.
13:32A good deal is going to depend on Jerry himself.
13:35How will it depend on him?
13:37It's not easy to be a TB patient.
13:39It requires a radical reorientation, physically and emotionally.
13:44In effect, he's got to return to the private world of an infant.
13:48Rest, complete rest, is the keystone in the treatment of TB.
13:54For six months, not even his foot is allowed to touch the floor.
13:59He's fed a high-protein, high-calorie diet.
14:03He's not going to like it.
14:08He's given the prescribed medication.
14:10His every physical need is attended to.
14:14But unlike the infant, he's not allowed the luxury of emotional outbursts, of physical
14:19movement.
14:21He has only his adult mind, his maturity, his hope and faith to sustain him during the
14:27long, tedious days.
14:30If those fail him, prognosis for recovery may well be unfavorable.
14:38Jerry's taking it pretty hard.
14:39Of course.
14:41He's fighting everything he is.
14:44He's a doctor.
14:45He wants to care for others.
14:47He wants to be the healer, not the helpless one.
14:49Well, there's a vast psychological difference between the two.
14:53Jerry must come to understand that and adapt himself to the change if we're going to get
14:57results.
14:58How can you expect that of him, doctor?
15:00He's been a dedicated person.
15:02It'll kill him to be like this.
15:04That's the real battle we have to face here, Mrs. Colton, not the one with the TB bug.
15:09It's the battle with Jerry himself.
15:12That's the one I'm worried about.
15:16So am I.
15:17How's he going today, Jerry?
15:31Same as any other.
15:32Any toxic reaction from the chemotherapy?
15:36I haven't noticed a reaction to anything.
15:38Well, it obviously hasn't stimulated your appetite.
15:42You're not eating enough, Jerry.
15:44We have to put some weight on you.
15:47What about that last gastric?
15:48Have you got a report on it yet?
15:50Came in this morning.
15:51Still positive.
15:54Only 60 days of treatment, Jerry.
15:56Sixty or six hundred.
15:57What's the difference?
15:59You tell me, doctor.
16:00What's the difference?
16:01None.
16:02Unless you want to live.
16:04Is this living?
16:17The kids.
16:18They've really been pretty spectacular lately.
16:21Yeah.
16:23Mike's the most wonderful helper.
16:26No more coaxing him to wash the dishes.
16:29Makes his own bed, too.
16:30You should really be proud of him.
16:36Would you like me to be quiet?
16:38Or just go?
16:42I was thinking about Dave Radford.
16:45You haven't heard anything from him lately, have you?
16:48No, I haven't.
16:50I've talked with some of the boys down at the hospital off and on, but apparently they
16:54haven't heard from him either.
16:57The free man.
16:58I wonder what it feels like walking around out there.
17:01I wonder how he's coming along with his tennis game.
17:09I'll be back tomorrow, Jerry.
17:29Jerry?
17:36Out.
17:42Sanatorium.
17:45One year.
17:46Maybe two.
17:47Sanatorium.
17:48Rest.
17:49Two years.
17:50Maybe three.
17:51Complete rest, Jerry.
17:53Three years.
17:54Maybe four.
17:55Rest, Jerry.
17:56Rest, Gerry, the sanatorium, four years, maybe five.
18:01Complete rest, Gerry, complete rest.
18:04Rest, rest, five years, maybe six.
18:08Rest, rest, rest.
18:26Rest, rest, rest.
18:29Rest, rest, rest.
18:32Rest, rest, rest.
18:35Rest, rest, rest.
18:38Rest, rest, rest.
18:41Rest, rest, rest.
18:44Rest, rest, rest.
18:47Rest, rest, rest.
18:50Rest, rest, rest.
18:53Rest, rest, rest.
18:56Rest, rest, rest.
18:59Rest, rest, rest.
19:02Rest, rest, rest.
19:05Rest, rest, rest.
19:08Rest, rest, rest.
19:11Rest, rest, rest.
19:14Rest, rest, rest.
19:17Rest, rest, rest.
19:20Rest, rest, rest.
19:23Rest, rest, rest.
19:26Rest, rest, rest.
19:29Rest, rest, rest.
19:32Rest, rest, rest.
19:35Rest, rest, rest.
19:38All right, now I'll take him right across the hall to 215.
19:50♪
20:11Nurse.
20:14Dr. Colton!
20:16The patient you just brought in.
20:18It's Dr. Radford.
20:19Come on, doctor, I'll help you back to bed.
20:22It's Dr. Radford.
20:23He's hemorrhaging. What happened?
20:24You can't break your rest, doctor.
20:25You have to get back to bed.
20:27Look, there's a friend of mine.
20:29We were residents together.
20:30What happened?
20:31I don't know the details.
20:33I understand he collapsed about an hour ago.
20:35Dr. Gersbach phoned and said to admit him tonight.
20:38What's his story?
20:39What's his condition?
20:41His X-ray show marked advancement.
20:43He's in for a long pull.
20:45Probably means eventual surgery.
20:47A pneumonectomy.
20:49Come on, doctor, I'll help you back to your room.
20:53He was going to treat himself.
20:55Virus pneumonia.
20:59Said he was going to treat himself.
21:02A Dave.
21:04Please, doctor.
21:13Because of Jerome Colton's initial resistance to treatment,
21:16it took longer in his case.
21:18103 days from the time of admittance
21:21to the first negative gastric.
21:22But from then on, his progress was rapid.
21:24In seven months, he was semi-ambulatory.
21:27Each report on gastric culture and inoculation, negative.
21:31Each day, his strength increasing, his spirits rising.
21:36Gary.
21:45It is now exactly 14 months and 11 days
21:47since Jerome Colton was admitted to the sanatorium.
21:53Come in, Jerry.
21:55Doctor.
21:56Big day.
21:57The biggest.
21:58I don't even mind this.
22:00Not complaining.
22:01Not a bit.
22:05What happens now?
22:08You're an internist, aren't you?
22:10That's right.
22:11Well, I'm not going to tell you that you can forget
22:13the past 14 months here.
22:15You'll never be able to do that completely.
22:18For the first few years, you'll have to keep regular hours.
22:20Get your rest.
22:21No overexertion.
22:24Follow this faithfully, and for all practical purposes,
22:26you can live a normal life.
22:30And I can practice medicine?
22:32That's right.
22:33You can practice medicine.
22:37Doctor, what about Dave Radford?
22:40How's he doing?
22:41Well, there's only one lung remaining.
22:43He shows a definite lack of response to chemotherapy.
22:46Even if we can arrest the disease
22:47before it becomes terminal,
22:50he'll never lead a normal life.
22:52He'll always be limited.
22:55Limited?
22:56How much does that take in?
22:57Quite a bit.
22:59I think he's through.
23:01I don't think he'll ever work again.
23:07So you're going to goof off, huh?
23:09Give us the brush?
23:12That's all the thanks we get.
23:14Look, Buster, I've heard every corny story
23:16you've had to offer three times over.
23:17It's time for a change.
23:20It's time for something.
23:21Look at that pot on you.
23:24A couple sets of tennis a day, that's what you need.
23:27The minute I get out of this settlement,
23:29clay courts for you, boy.
23:31Check, Buster.
23:33I'll spot you two games of set
23:34and beat the ever-loving pants off of you.
23:36Listen to that.
23:38Oh, God.
24:39The medical profession is doing everything possible
24:41to eliminate tuberculosis as a major health problem.
24:44But the ultimate success of this cause depends on you.
24:46Early detection is of major importance.
24:49X-ray chest examinations are available to all of us.
24:52It takes less than half a second to make a chest picture.
24:55Little enough time to spare
24:57when it could well mean saving your life.
25:03I'm sorry, Buster.
25:04I don't know what to do.
25:06I'm sorry.
25:08I don't know what to do.
25:10Please.
25:11Please.
25:12Take me away.
25:13Please.
25:14Please.
25:16Please.
25:17Take me away.
25:18Please.
25:20Take me away.
25:25Take me away.
25:32Take me away.