this surreal moment between boy and dog, and Honey spontaneously yelps
a plaintive bark, and assumes his posture on his haunches. And now, did I
detect a wiggle of a finger? Is Travis moving his hand? We are poised,
nobody moving, everyone watching that left hand. Except now I see Travis
slowly moving his head to the left, eyes still shut and swollen, and
although it’s the tiniest of movements it’s obvious that it’s intentional.
Honey barks again, and like starting an old car after years out of service,
Travis is slowly reigniting. His head lifts almost unperceptively, and
murmurs of “yes” and “no” and “oh my god” are whispered out loud.
Travis continues to respond, moving every limb as the minutes pass by;
this further encourages Honey to bark, nuzzle, paw, and whine as Travis is
resurrected by some mysterious force. Eventually, Travis manages to lift an
eyelid, and we are so flummoxed there is nothing left to say. Sensing our
earlier doubts, Travis’s father locks eyes with mine and says, “I told you
there was something about our son and that dog.”
Six months later, I am walking along a public corridor in the clinical
towers of the hospital. Internship continues to be a grind, and my
preoccupation is to make it through the remaining months until I
transition to orthopedic surgery residency. I guess I’m in daydream mode,
eyes glazed over until I realize that two people are making a beeline my
way. I don’t think I’ve met the younger one, but I recognize the older
gentleman, but I can’t recall why. Turning to his son he says, “Travis, this
is one of the surgery residents who saved your life.” I am dumbfounded—I
don’t recognize Travis at all—and the only mark I see on his body is the
tracheotomy scar at the base of his neck. His dad adds, “Dr. Schneider was
also there when Honey brought you back to life.” Struggling for words, all
I can say is, “It’s nice to meet you Travis.”
Five hundred years ago, Western Europe was still mired in primitive
conditions no better than Romans and Greek citizens had enjoyed two
millennia before. Muddy roads, animal excrement, plague diseases, and
swelling cities subjected mankind to more misery than even our foraging
ancestors had endured. While the printing press had revolutionized
communication flow, there was precious little new knowledge prior to the
groundbreaking advancements ushered in by the astronomers in the mid–
16th century. A suffering patient in the late 1500s would have been
attended to by a physician with almost no appreciation of how the body