COINCIDENCES ARE GOD'S WAY OF BEING ANONYMUS. Albert Einstein

 

In 2014 I suffered a severe attack of diverticulitis; I was at home working remotely when a pain in my abdomen completely paralyzed me. My first thought was that my last hour was finally there; it was with great desperation that I phoned my son who immediately alerted 911. When we arrived at Mount Sinai Hospital emergency room, Dr. A., a surgeon who spoke to me in Spanish, assisted us. The first thing he said was that a colostomy bag was necessary, which I flatly refused. Because he could see that I was extremely stressed, he agreed to wait until the next day to see if my condition improved. Mercifully it did; a colostomy bag would have generated in me a depression that would have interfered with my recovery. It was during the twelve days of my stay at the hospital that a relationship of deep respect and esteem grew between this doctor and myself. But not only with me; every time he came to see me in my room to update me on my condition, he called my son over the phone to keep him informed. Finally, the day of my discharge came, and I left the hospital; and with the passage of time and the daily problems of life my diverticulitis fell into oblivion. Until in 2022 when, for some reason, the memory of Dr. A. who had saved my life came back to my mind, and I decided to send him a thank you note. However, because of my age or because of the illness bad memories, the name of this doctor had vanished from my memory. It was then that I started looking for him wherever I could; but neither the hospital's medical records nor my online medical record was of any help.  Then January of this year arrived, and I decided to prepare my taxes for the accountant to process. Knowing that we are only supposed to keep seven years of taxes available, I went to the cabinet where I keep those files to take out the one from 2014 to start shredding those documents. As I sat down at my desk and opened the receipts envelope, the first thing I see is a check for $1,255.20 that I had paid to Dr. A.  as co-payment for his services. It was then that I remembered that when I handed him the check that day at his office, he told me that if I couldn't pay him, I didn’t have to. I had finally found his name; my letter of appreciation is on the way.