The_Invention_of_Surgery

Allied forces had suffered grave casualties in the opening days of the
Continental invasion, and in the coming weeks would struggle to maintain
a foothold in the north of France. Thousands of soldiers, marines, and
airmen were killed in action, the victims of drowning, explosions, gunfire,
and burns, while thousands more required medical attention in the
temporary field hospitals that were established in parallel with regiment
advancement. In Arques-la-Bataille, the newly minted medical officer,
Lieutenant Neer, and his colleagues attended to traumatized Allied (and
occasionally, German) troops, dressing wounds and performing surgery
day and night.
Dr. Neer also served in the Pacific theater, working in the Philippines
and in Japan. He saw the true horrors of war, including visiting the
devastated Hiroshima bomb site. Charlie’s experience in warfare medicine
was never far from his mind; the ravages of war technology, the feebleness
of 1940s medicine, and the agonizing cries of suffering, hopeless men.
Decades later, he still remembered the beaches of Normandy.
Late in Dr. Neer’s career, a phone call from Washington was patched
through to his Columbia office. Secretary of State James Baker was
urgently requesting a conversation with Dr. Neer. As a matter of patriotic
duty, the secretary asked that Dr. Neer travel to Paris to attend to a wealthy
individual who was an important ally of America (his identity not
divulged here). Charlie Neer, the boy from Vinita, was being asked to
provide medical consultation to one of the wealthiest people in the world
at the behest of the president.
Acceding somewhat reluctantly, Dr. and Mrs. Neer were booked on a
flight from John F. Kennedy Airport aboard Air France’s supersonic
Concorde jet. The harrowing flight at supersonic speed had begun with a
terrifying take off, the plane tilting from side to side as it launched off the
New York runway. The time savings did little to comfort the jittery jet-
setters, and the distinction of traveling on the world’s most famous
airplane was lost in the terror of a rocket ship launch.
A handful of hours later, flying high enough to appreciate the
circumference of the earth, Dr. Neer was in Paris, whisked to his patient’s
private residence in the most exclusive arrondissement in Paris. The
shoulder examination was methodical and thorough; the discussion of the
patient’s diagnosis and prognosis was, as always, meticulous and detailed.