Re: [nukkad] Beethoven's Deafness

["Mahesh chandra Gupta" <>]

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tip of the day:  Do not include the entire message in your reply. Include only
the relevant parts.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nitin,
 Thanks for Beethovan's medical history. As a doctor, I could understand the
various medical aspects. It was interesting. Two thoughts instantly came to
mind as I read it:

1.  Beethovan was incapacitated at 30, totally so by 33. Yet, he has made
memorable contributions to humanity in that short span. As a matter of fact,
many great men died young and had achieved much in their short life. Adi
Guru Shankaracharya lived 33 years. There was a renowned maharashtri sant
who entered samadhi at 21 years. I am sorry I forget his name.

2. It is the doctors' fate to be blamed for their suffering by the patients.
Beetovan, too, repeatedly blames his doctors. What can the poor doctors do?
They can extend only that much medical help as is available in their time
depending on the stage of development of medical science in their time. The
disease SLE, as all autoimmune diseases and their treatment, were just not
known in those times. The disease must have been there, but its cause and
treatment were not known. As a matter of fact, even the word immunology was
probably not known by then. And the medicines used now for such diseases
were not known then. But a doctor can not turn away a patient saying medical
science does not know the cause or treatment of his disease. He has to treat
the patient as he feels best, but the treatment can scarce be useful when it
is totally unrelated to the cause. In any case, the patient and his
relatives blame the doctors, even accusing them of cheating them. Such is
the fate of doctors! It is nothing new. It has happened, happens and will
continue to happen. Human nature does not change.

[N.B.: This is not intended to be an accusation against society, an epilogue
of doctors' woes or a defence for them. They too are human and commit
errors, including medical negligence].

    MC Gupta
Aug 3
============================================================

From: "Goyal Nitin" <Nitin.Goyal@ggn.spcnl.co.in>
Subject: [nukkad] Beethoven's Deafness

> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
>
> Born in Bonn in 1770, the eldest son of a singer
-----
By 1815 increasing deafness made
> public performance impossible
-----------
for six years
> I have been hopelessly ill, aggravated and cheated by quacks in
> the hope of improvement
------
. All the
resources
> of the physician's art were useless
------. ...
>>
Then an Asinus of a
doctor
> advised cold baths, a more skillful one, the usual tepid Danube baths.
These
> worked wonders; but my deafness remained or became worse.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To Subscribe [Unsubscribe] send a blank message to 
        nukkad-list-request@mumbai-central.com 
with the word 'subscribe' ['unsubscribe'] (without quotes) in the Subject 
of your message.
The list is archived at  http://www.mumbai-central.com/nukkad/archive.html