Bill N4AR

I have met an old friend of mine, Bill, N4AR on 20m this morning. I have introduced him in a previous post in this blog. Here.

He told me he had finally retired 8 months ago. It was a hard time for him to leave his patients. He has worked hard as a cardiologist for decades. No wonder his patients were sad to farewell to him as well. I could sympathize, or I should say, shared his sense of loss in his situation. Because I have had it almost 4 years ago.

Doctor-patient relationship is or should be based on the purest form of human relationship. It is  not to give any knowledge or skill of medical procedure at the cost they determine for that. Without faith in each other, that relationship is hardly achievable. It may sound a kind of ideological thought. But, in reality, the relationship should be in faith and sympathy as human being. Sympathy may sound like a paternalism but could be replaced to a german word, Mitleiden. It is a cooperative work and process between a patient and a doctor. It is the characteristics of this profession which attracts many young people who would be a doctor. Even though the socioeconomical situation makes it hard to maintain such a relationship in the real medical practise, I believe, most doctors are struggling for that. I thought Bill had been one of such doctors. I would say to him he has lived a wonderful life as a doctor and it is the time for him to step out a new stage in his life.

As told before, his big antennas were all destroyed by an ice storm several years ago. He was going to rebuild them soon. It might not be an easy work for him to put them up again. I advised him to count his age twice before climbing on the tower. I still look forward hearing his big signal on 40m early at night here. He used to tell me he would quit radio and go for the round at the inpatient ward when we finished a QSO on 40m in his morning hours. From now on, he won't tell me that way but would tell he would enjoy riding horse etc.