Polite Dissent

For those of you too young to remember (including me), Ben Casey was television show that ran on ABC from 1961 to 1966. It starred Vince Edwards as Dr. Ben Casey, a neurosergery resident at the hospital 59 West. Dell published ten issues of a Ben Casey comic book from 1962 through 1965. Today’s topic is Ben Casey #3 from December, 1962.

Dr. Ben Casey and his co-worker Dr. Maggie Graham take their boss Dr. Zorba out to dinner for his birthday to the Periscope, an expensive seafood restaurant. Also dining at the Periscope that night is the famous actor Brent Calhoon. An obnoxious drunk spills some food on Calhoon’s wife and then picks a fight with Calhoon. It’s a vicious fight and both combatants end up down for the count. The drunk has been knocked unconscious and Calhoon has multiple facial lacerations and fractures.

Ben Casey examines the drunk and realizes that he’s in bad shape with a probable subdural hematoma. The ambulance arrives and both patients are rushed to the hospital. Casey operates on the drunk, drilling several burr holes to drain the hematomas. It’s a tough operation and the patient survives — at first, but dies from his injuries about an hour later.

Dr. Casey then goes to evaluate Calhoon. As he surmised at the restaurant, Calhoon has suffered a couple of jaw fractures, something easy for good oral surgeon to fix. When Casey informs him that the other patient died, Calhoon becomes hysterical. It takes an injection of a sedative before he finally calms down.

Outside Calhoon’s room, Casey encounters the press corps who want to know about Calhoon and the other patient. Casey starts to explain the situation, but a reporter accuses him of covering up the fact that Calhoon is guilty of murdering the other fighter. That doesn’t sit well with Casey who is ready to start a fight of his own, but luckily at just that moment he is called to Dr. Zorba’s office.

Inside the office, Dr. Casey finds the District Attorney waiting for him. The DA is ready to charge Calhoon with murder, but wants Dr. Casey’s opinion on the case as he operated on the dead man. Casey informs the DA that the operation revealed that the patient had suffered multiple head traumas over the years that had weakened his blood vessels. Thus while Calhoon may have struck the fatal blow, the previous injuries had contributed to the death as well. Furthermore, Casey points out that he recognized the patient as a local professional boxer. That means that his fists are considered lethal weapons and according to the law, Calhoon was merely acting in self defense. After his talk with Dr. Casey, the DA drops all charges against Calhoon.

Meanwhile, Calhoon has become paralyzed and is unable to walk. He is convinced that he has suffered some brain damage in the fight and he needs immediate brain surgery. He knows this because he once played a doctor on TV. Casey has a different opinion. He recognizes that Calhoon is suffering from hysterical paralysis from guilt over the death of the drunk. Casey recommends a psychiatrist, but Calhoon refuses, demanding surgery.

Eventually Dr. Casey relents and Calhoon is wheeled off to surgery. Once the patient is anesthetized and the surgery started, Casey hands the scalpel off to another doctor. A few hours later, Calhoon is wheeled back to his room for recovery. The next day, miraculously, Calhoon is no longer paralyzed and can walk again. Talking privately to Calhoon’s wife, Casey tells her that they never performed any brain surgery on her husband, they just repaired his jaw fractures. They lied to him about the brain surgery so he would think he could walk again. Casey tells Calhoon’s wife to keep this a secret, and then he, Maggie, and Dr. Zorba head off to the hospital cafeteria to finish Dr. Zorba’s birthday dinner.

This was an entertaining story with a couple of clever plot twists. The “hands are lethal weapons” was a nice way out for Calhoon, though I wonder if that’s true legally or just an urban legend. Calhoon’s hysterical paralysis added another dimension to the story though the sham operation was more than a little unethical and is likely to backfire when (and if) Calhoon realizes the truth. While not quite unethical (at least according to the 1960s), you’ll notice Dr. Casey was freely sharing a great deal more of his patients’ medical information than he should have been

In addition to the Ben Casey main story, the comic contains a four page Dr. Dan Dazzler backup story as well as a one page text story about Dr. Lester Dingwall and a pet monkey. The inside covers concern the history of medical inventions and the founding of the county’s first tissue bank. The back cover piece is about Florence Nightingale.