In addition to all of the things that made my father-in-law an extraordinary man, he was a teacher. Through his career, he mentored the development of thousands of young doctors. He not only taught them about medicine, but also about compassion (while perhaps trying to pass on a legacy of wearing bow ties). [more]

I spent the better part of the day yesterday in a hospital room. And, when I wasn’t in the room, the rest of the day was spent waiting to hear news about my 86-year-old father-in-law’s double knee replacement surgery. Although this procedure didn’t have the urgency of the emergency abdominal aorta aneurism operation he had a few years ago, any surgery is risky business, and priorities are firmly jolted back to their rightful place.
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