In 1967 I was one of the Surgical Chiefs at the Frere Hospital in East London, a 1000 bed State General Hospital very well managed with top class Professional Medical and Nursing standards. My appointment was on a part time Consultant basis. Unfortunately, the remuneration for part timers was very low at that time, so I was compelled to open a private Practice in order to make ends meet. The work load was brutally high, so I got partners in to help.
In the 1960’s in South Africa, Doctors were required to have separate waiting rooms with separate entrances. This I refused to do, so from day one it was one set of rooms and one service for all. This attracted some criticism from colleagues and officialdom but nothing serious happened.
To get on with my story, in 1973 a police Captain came to see me as a patient. On investigation he had Cancer of the stomach. I had to do a very extensive gastric (Stomach) resection to remove it. Post operatively Capt. Venter (not his real name) did extremely well. I continued to see him for regular follow-ups for years so we got to know one another quite well. He regained his former health so quickly that I began to question the pathologist’s diagnosis. Stomach cancer is one of the nastier malignancies yet he recovered faster and better than expected. A repeat scrutiny of the Histology (tissue slides examined under high power microscopy) confirmed the diagnosis was correct.
1977 was...
