This story is thought-provoking and reveals the confusion modern people face when treating illnesses.....
I was in the stairwell when, all of a sudden, I felt a slight itch in my left ear. My wife insisted that I see a doctor—she said that a lack of caution often leads to serious illness.
The doctor examined my ear and, after about half an hour, finally looked up and told me, “Take six penicillin tablets; this will immediately clear the dirt from your left ear.” I swallowed the pills. Two days later, the itch was gone, and my left ear felt as if it had been reborn.
The only thing that dampened my spirits was a rash on my abdomen—intensely itchy and unbearable. I immediately sought out an expert. With only a cursory glance, he told me, “Some people are not suited for penicillin and may have an allergic reaction. Do not worry; take twelve aureomycin pills and in a few days everything will return to normal.”
Aureomycin worked as expected: the spots vanished. However, I then discovered that my knees were swollen and I had a high fever. Staggering, I dragged myself to a veteran doctor.
“We are not unfamiliar with these phenomena,” he consoled me, “they are often closely linked to the efficacy of aureomycin.” He prescribed 32 terramycin tablets. Miraculously, the fever subsided and the swelling in my knees disappeared. However, my kidneys soon began to ache with a pain that was nearly fatal.
There are many things in this world that enslave us, and drugs are undoubtedly among them.
An expert was then summoned to my bedside. He determined that the excruciating pain in my kidneys was the result of taking terramycin—a matter not to be taken lightly, for the kidneys are vital organs.
Thus, he had a nurse administer 64 injections of aureomycin, intent on annihilating every bacterium within me.
In the modern hospital laboratory, numerous tests unequivocally confirmed that while not a single living bacterium remained in my body, my muscles and nerve fibers had suffered the same fate as those bacteria.
Only a large dose of chloramphenicol could save my life.
I took a large dose of chloramphenicol.
Those who admired me soon arrived to attend my funeral, though many idle individuals were mixed in among them.
A rabbi, in his moving eulogy, recounted my valiant struggle against disease. Regrettably, the treatment proved ineffective, and I was forced to die in the prime of my youth—a deep source of sorrow. It was only in the afterlife that I inadvertently discovered the truth: the itch in my left ear had been caused by a mosquito bite.
This story was written by Ephraim Kishon.
Reference:
