Some may remember that I posted a piece called “Thinking about placebos and healing”. I thought it was just a few months ago, but it was actually in November 2018. It was stimulated by my surprise and confusion about the fact that most patients undergoing sham procedures in my EPISOD research study did remarkably well, […]

Some of the adventures I have recounted in recent months happened while I was on the Consultant staff of The Middlesex Hospital in London (1973-86). You may wonder about the name, which could be misunderstood. It was called The Middlesex because it was in the County of Middlesex, now part of the city of London.

I am running short on anecdotes about royal patients, but do have some other royal connections, about which you are no doubt curious, and maybe envious. Let’s start with Kings. I was born in the little village of Kingstone, near Hereford, in the west of England. Note “Cotton’s Meadow”, which was indeed a meadow across

It is a stretch to call this one a royal patient, but it might amuse. For a while I was a member of the Royal Air Force volunteer reserve. I may have mentioned before that our whole family was into gliding, big time in my youth. When I got to Cambridge University I found, like

A Bollywood mega star was in the news recently, having contracted and happily survived COVID19 Amitabh Bachchan had another close brush with mortality almost 40 years ago, having suffered an injury while filming on location. The severity of his illness led to uncontrolled bleeding, suspected to be coming from an acute stomach “stress ulcer”. I

I was about to perform an endoscopy procedure on a prominent member of the British cabinet who was known to enjoy a drink or two, who, also like Churchill, had changed political party allegiances several times over his career. When I asked him to turn onto his left side, he turned to the right. He

Although working in the National Health Service at The Middlesex hospital in London, I (like many) had to run a small private practice on the side to survive. I learned a lesson rather early from one patient who claimed to be a famous film star in his country in (or next to) the Mediterranean. He

This story starts with a phone call in May 1994 from the embassy of an oil-rich country in the Middle East. “We want you to come and treat an important person. I have arranged for a plane to collect you tomorrow. Bring any assistants and equipment that you need. Would that be convenient?” Hell no,