Ian, you are right.

When I was about seven or eight years old, I had a very wicked ear infection--so bad I banged my head against the wall because it felt better than it did without banging my head against the wall. I don't know how, but my mum called a doctor who came to where we lived and gave me a shot of penicillin, some pills to take, and having seen the circumstances in which we lived charged us $5.00. He was, imo, a saint.

I know doctors from my youth who were like that. I did and do admire them. I find few to do that with today. I do NOT expect free medical treatment. I wouldn't ask a plumber to plumb for free. People have to make a living. But these days, even with a NHP, doctors seem to be 'quite above it all'. I don't know why, because doing a good job at open heart surgery isn't really all that different from doing a good job plumbing. I've held testes that were close to severed, pieces of legs that were held on by thin strips of muscle, heads that could take just the tiniest of moves to render the patient unable to walk or move his arms ever again. Rescue personnel do that daily. But then to have some arrogant shite do a three hour op and charge tens of thousands for what twenty men and women delivered for less than $500, sometimes risking their lives, makes me wonder where the hell our priorities are and what's out of kilt with our world.

I have always liked your wit on this forum, and I apologize if I offended you.

BM