Polite Dissent

This post covers the medical aspect of the first issue of M.D., published in 1955 by EC. A summary of the comic itself can be found in my previous post.

For the most part, the medicine in this comic holds up very well fifty years later. Technologies and medications have certainly improved since 1955, but I refuse to hold that against the writers and artists.

The first story about the history of disease and medicine is fairly light and inconsequential. I take issue with the statement: “As soon as man developed enough intelligence to distinguish metabolic disease from parasitic infection…the practice of medicine began in its crudest form…” The practice of medicine began long before we could tell metabolic disease from parasitic disease. We still have trouble differentiating the two sometimes even now. Malaria wasn’t proven to be parasitic until 1897, and only recently has Lyme Disease been shown to be parasitic in nature.

The second story, Janie Some Day, is the one I have the most problems with. First, I am not sure what “congenital osteomyelitis” refers to. Osteomyelitis is a bone infection, and congenital means that the patient was born with it, but I can find no references in the medical literature to “congenital osteomyelitis”. Admittedly, my resources do not go back as far as 1955, and it may have been common terminology then. At one point, Dr. Kendall refers to Janie’s condition as an infection of the bone by tuberculosis. Certainly, tuberculosis can infect bones – usually the spine, but leg bones can be infected too. Tuberculosis can also very rarely (300 cases, ever) be transmitted congenitally. So, Janie could have had this tuberculosis passed from her mother that infected her leg bones, but I suspect the writer is referring to something else.

I am more concerned about Dr. Kendall’s treatment of Janie. He has her leg amputated, and misleads her into thinking she won’t need an artificial leg. Another time, he knows her left leg is healed, but keeps the cast on two extra months just to be “absolutely sure”. At best, Dr. Kendall is misguided, at worst he is a cruel and sadistic man. Either way, I’d suggest the orphanage needs to find a better doctor.

The third story where little Bobby chokes on a safety pin could happen as written today, but I suspect the parents would call 911 long before they’d call the doctor. Note: If your child is choking, please call 911 before calling my office.

The last story is fine. The treatment of acute appendicitis remains an emergent operation. Anesthesiology has advanced remarkably since the 1950s, and we no longer use “ether dripped onto the large gauze pad over the patient’s nose and mouth.”

It is fascinating noting the changes in medicine in the fifty years since this comic was published. Anesthesiology and medications have improved, but the basic procedures remain the same. Two of the three medical stories deal with doctors making house calls, a unlikely occurrence in today’s society. There is also no mention of insurance or HMO anywhere. Hmmm…

As much as I enjoy the respect that is shown to my profession, the comic’s fawning adoration of the Family Doctor is almost creepy. I fully expected the doctors to turn water to wine the way the stories nearly deify them.

Except for poor little Janie, I was pleasantly surprised to find how well the stories hold up medically today, almost fifty years they were first published.