In the blink of an eye

Abstract

Long ago I did an assistantship in a small village in Devon in rural England. During my first week the general practitioner, who was my principle, was driving me through the village and I noticed a man, with a typical Parkinson’s shuffle, walking along the pavement. I mentioned to my principle that he was a good case of Parkinson’s disease. He immediately slammed on the brakes of the car because he had, at that moment, an “aha!” or “light bulb” moment. “I have been treating that man for twenty years” he said “and I hadn’t noticed that he has become a Parkinson’s disease”. Luckily I had recently seen several cases in the hospital as a houseman and was “tuned in”. I had “in the blink of an eye” picked him up from my visual script of Parkinson’s disease.