Polite Dissent

The second issue of M.D. is a lot darker than the first issue. Only one of the four stories can really be considered to have a traditional happy ending. The art continues in the intricate style E.C. comics were known for, and the lettering has the familiar blocky look.

The cover shows two doctors assisting a victim at a car crash, a scene that never appears in the comic. M.D. #2 is dated June-July 1955 and had the cover price of 10?.

The first story, “The Balance”, is about Bobby, a young boy who develops leukemia. Since the story was written before chemotherapy was available, treatment options were limited. Bobby is admitted to the hospital and given injections of cortisone to suppress the white blood cells and transfusions to build up his number of red blood cells. He does well at first, but then his symptoms return and worsen. He slips in and out of a coma and eventually dies. When the doctor tells his parents the sad news, his pregnant mother panics and runs down the hall, slipping and injuring herself. She is taken for an immediate c-section, and ultimately delivers a healthy set of twins. Looking at his new children, Bobby’s father remarks: “It’s strange, isn’t it doc…how things work out? Twins! A boy…to take the place of the one we…we lost…and the girl we’ve wanted for so long.”

The type of leukemia Bobby has is never stated, but is most likely Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL). It is a cancer of precursor white blood cells, which grow so dramatically that they choke out all the other blood cells. The treatment of leukemia has dramatically improved in the past fifty years, and the diagnosis is no longer the death sentence it once was. Hospital conditions and policies have improved as well. Family is considered important, and Bobby would not have had to die all alone.

This story does show a fair amount of sexism with the mother repeatedly referred to as “frail” based on nothing more than the fact she was female and pregnant. The father’s last line and the thought repeated by the doctor that a dead child can be “replaced” is misguided and strikes me personally as somewhat repugnant.

Herbie, a child with cerebral palsy, is the focus of the second story “Different”. Feeling that his family would be better off without him, Herbie runs away. He knows his mother will miss him, but he doubts his brothers will even notice he is gone because they always make fun of him. His father mostly ignores him, and just the other day forbade him from going outside so the neighbors wouldn’t know he had an “idiot child.” Herbie is found by a kindly policeman and taken to a wise family doctor. The parents are brought in to see the physician who lectures them sternly about Herbie: “If Herbie were an idiot, he wouldn’t have been hurt by the things you said about him and did to him! Your son, Mr. Struthers, is a bright, sensitive, intelligent boy!” Chagrinned, the parents ask for help. The doctor informs them that there is no surgery or medicine that can cure Herbie, but with intensive therapy, he can lead a more normal life. The parents agree and Herbie starts therapy, improving a little each day.

This story is a good narrative about cerebral palsy, both then and now. The treatment remains essentially the same today, and the prejudice faced by people with cerebral palsy continues.

In “A Case for the Books”, the third story, the elderly cabinetmaker Gustaff suddenly loses most of the vison in his right eye. He goes to see the local Family Doctor, who sends him on to an eye specialist in the city. The specialist tells Gustaff that he has ocular hypertension and that the high pressure in his eye is damaging the optic nerve and could lead to permanent blindness. An operation is required to reduce the pressure. Gustaff agrees, and a small hole is drilled in his eye to reduce the pressure. The operation is successful and Gustaff regains his vision. Instead of money, the doctor asks for a handmade bookshelf in payment.

The term ocular hypertension fell out of favor in the 1970s because it was vague and meant different things to different people. Today it refers to someone who has elevated eye pressure but no other symptoms. Gustaff had progressed beyond this to a severe case of glaucoma. Caught early enough, glaucoma can be treated with eye drops. If it progresses too far, an operation is required. Modern glaucoma operations are similar to the one Gustaff had, though lasers are used.

In the final story, “Even For a While”, Augie has constant severe headaches, nausea, and visual changes. The local doctor suspects he had a brain tumor, and sends him to a specialist at the hospital. The specialist runs a battery of tests and confirms that Augie has a tumor. An operation is performed, and the cancer removed successfully. After recovering from his surgery, Augie thanks everyone for caring so much about him, especially considering the fact that he is a murderer set to die in the electric chair in a few weeks.

Our diagnostic tests are better today, so the several days of tests Augie went through would not be required. The ethical issue raised by this story is left up to you.

In addition to the four stories, there are also two text pieces in the comic. The first one, “Fever Fighter”, tells of an American army physician named William Gorgas who served during the Spanish-American War and while the Panama Canal was being constructed. Gorgas was the first to realize that yellow fever was spread by mosquitoes. He was one of the first to realize that malaria was also spread by mosquitoes. He was ultimately named Surgeon General of the Army.

The second text piece tells of Edward Jenner and how he discovered smallpox vaccination. This story has always fascinated me, not just because the eradication of smallpox is one our greatest accomplishments, but because of some of the ethical issues involved in Jenner’s original experiment. His subject was an eight-year old boy who was first injected with cowpox, then smallpox. How ethical is it to experiment on a child? Did they, and could they, give consent? What if Jenner had been wrong?

The stories in this issue are not nearly as wordy as those in the first issue were. In fact, the story on leukemia and the one on ocular hypertension could have used more explanations. The mix of medical conditions this issue is good because it shows that no matter how much medicine changes over the years (leukemia, glaucoma), much of it stays the same (cerebral palsy).