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yet administered an injection to any one? Also, no one had yet told me how painful a Vitamin B12 shot could be. The directions said to administer the injection in the buttock, so that is what I did. I must say that George was very good about not fainting dead away but he knew that something had gone on behind him. His first comment after recovering a bit was, “I’ll bet that was the first shot you ever gave wasn’t it?” I admitted it, George recovered and we remained best friends.
    “I’m Having My baby!”
    Early in my junior year of medical school, everyone in the class was assigned to follow a newly pregnant woman upon her arrival at the obstetrics clinic. This assignment took precedent over our other activities—we were to be on call to attend her at all times and could be called out of whatever class activities we were engaged in whenever she arrived at the hospital. Naturally, we got to know our ladies very well while we were learning how to properly follow a pregnancy. I knew my patient had had several normal pregnancies. When my patient was near term, I was called because she was in labor and already in a labor room. When I arrived, she said that she had come by taxi to the hospital and had had just two labor pains. (We were to call them “contractions” not pains.) Surely, she was not very far along in labor. I examined her and left to stand just outside the room in case she needed me. I awaited the resident in charge. As I was talking with a passing classmate, I heard my patient call from the labor room, “Doctor, I’m havin’ my baby!” Indeed she was and I proceeded to deliver a fine baby boy. Paying attention only to what I was doing, I tied and cut the umbilical cord and prepared to show a very vocal infant to his mother. When I looked up there stood a bevy of nursing students with their instructor and my resident. The nurses had been passing by and stopped to observe the proceedings. Not until then did I feel even a little nervous. The baby was whisked off to the nursery to be weighed and evaluated. And then I began to feel quite proud of myself. (I still do over this event at least.) Later, the mother said that she had had three contractions, one at home, one in the taxi and the final one in the labor room. This was an excellent lesson in taking a complete history. Later also, the OB-GYN section had a serious discussion at higher levels about how to avoid a similar situation in the future, but I didn’t get in any trouble at all as my classmates confidently predicted I would. Thankfully, my training up until then had been quite thorough and all I really did were things I had seen done before.
    A Ruined Coat
    One evening in the midst of winter in Rochester, I was hanging out in the OB section of the hospital with no specific assignment to perform. Suddenly, the doors to the anteroom of the delivery room flew open and a lady in labor arrived. Her fur coat, which she was still wearing, was trailing off the back of the gurney. I stood there and watched a very quick delivery. As the baby was rushed off to the delivery room, the new mother turned to me and said, “Damn, I’ve ruined my coat!” I looked closely to see what damage may have been done and then assured her that her coat was undamaged. “Great,” she said, “What’d I have?” She had had a healthy baby boy and was quite happy about that outcome, too.
    Mr. Smith
    While rotating through the surgery service, we spent several weeks in urology. We were not on the service all day every day but we did make morning rounds with the attending doctors. There were about half a dozen of us doing this and we were assigned patients in rotation as they were admitted to the hospital. My first patient was a Mr. Smith. I completed his workup and presented his case one morning. Quite by chance, my next patient was named Smith. That, of course, caused amusement among my classmates, but they were positively hysterical when my third urology patient was