Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Preface
- Chapter 1 Early Days
- Chapter 2 Washington Heights
- Chapter 3 Speyer School for Gifted Children
- Chapter 4 New York University at University Heights
- Chapter 5 To Each His Farthest Star–A Medical Student at Rochester: 1929–1934
- Chapter 6 Duke University Hospital and Its Medical School, 1934–1935
- Chapter 7 Yale Medical School, 1935–1936
- Chapter 8 Return to Duke, 1936-1937
- Chapter 9 You Can Go Home Again
- Chapter 10 My One and Only Wife
- Chapter 11 The Bronx Is the Graveyard for Specialists, 1937
- Chapter 12 The Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, 1937 — The First of Its Kind
- Chapter 13 Pearl Harbor and World War II
- Chapter 14 Valley Forge General Hospital, 1942–1945
- Chapter 15 Tinian, 1945
- Chapter 16 Saipan, 1945–1946
- Chapter 17 Return to Columbia-Presbyterian, 1946
- Chapter 18 The Changing of the Guard at the Medical Center
- Chapter 19 An Internist-Diagnostician Rebuilds His Practice
- Chapter 20 The Upjohn Grand Rounds
- Chapter 21 The Iceman Cometh to Park Avenue
- Chapter 22 Songs My Patients Taught Me
- Chapter 23 Mr. J. Peter Grace, Chairman of W. R. Grace and Company
- Chapter 24 Birth of the Upjohn Gastrointestinal Service
- Chapter 25 Roosevelt Hospital, 1962–1965
- Chapter 26 Consultant and Physician to President Herbert C. Hoover
- Chapter 27 Problems at Roosevelt Hospital: The Bête Noir of Full Time
- Chapter 28 Internal Medicine as a Vocation (1897)
- Chapter 29 The Upjohn Service Moves to St. Vincent’s Hospital
- Chapter 30 Helicobacter Pylori and Peptic Ulcer: A Revolution in Gastroenterology
- Chapter 31 Plasmapheresis for Hepatic Coma at St. Vincent’s Hospital
- Epilogue
- Endmatter
Chapter 17 - Return to Columbia-Presbyterian, 1946
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 March 2023
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Preface
- Chapter 1 Early Days
- Chapter 2 Washington Heights
- Chapter 3 Speyer School for Gifted Children
- Chapter 4 New York University at University Heights
- Chapter 5 To Each His Farthest Star–A Medical Student at Rochester: 1929–1934
- Chapter 6 Duke University Hospital and Its Medical School, 1934–1935
- Chapter 7 Yale Medical School, 1935–1936
- Chapter 8 Return to Duke, 1936-1937
- Chapter 9 You Can Go Home Again
- Chapter 10 My One and Only Wife
- Chapter 11 The Bronx Is the Graveyard for Specialists, 1937
- Chapter 12 The Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, 1937 — The First of Its Kind
- Chapter 13 Pearl Harbor and World War II
- Chapter 14 Valley Forge General Hospital, 1942–1945
- Chapter 15 Tinian, 1945
- Chapter 16 Saipan, 1945–1946
- Chapter 17 Return to Columbia-Presbyterian, 1946
- Chapter 18 The Changing of the Guard at the Medical Center
- Chapter 19 An Internist-Diagnostician Rebuilds His Practice
- Chapter 20 The Upjohn Grand Rounds
- Chapter 21 The Iceman Cometh to Park Avenue
- Chapter 22 Songs My Patients Taught Me
- Chapter 23 Mr. J. Peter Grace, Chairman of W. R. Grace and Company
- Chapter 24 Birth of the Upjohn Gastrointestinal Service
- Chapter 25 Roosevelt Hospital, 1962–1965
- Chapter 26 Consultant and Physician to President Herbert C. Hoover
- Chapter 27 Problems at Roosevelt Hospital: The Bête Noir of Full Time
- Chapter 28 Internal Medicine as a Vocation (1897)
- Chapter 29 The Upjohn Service Moves to St. Vincent’s Hospital
- Chapter 30 Helicobacter Pylori and Peptic Ulcer: A Revolution in Gastroenterology
- Chapter 31 Plasmapheresis for Hepatic Coma at St. Vincent’s Hospital
- Epilogue
- Endmatter
Summary
Words fail me to adequately describe what it was like to return to my beloved wife after a separation of more than a year. To see her beautiful face, to hear her lovely voice, and to hold her close was an incredible reward for the many days and months of separation and living apart. Our first days were spent trying to make up for all that had been lost. Soon we had to come down to earth to face the realities of the day. We disposed of our Philadelphia apartment by turning it over to Ardean's close friend and associate Helen Hawthorne, the directress of nurses at the Graduate Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Getting an automobile proved very frustrating. It was routine for auto salesmen to demand cash under the table for a new car, and I had decided I would not pay these bastards any of my hard-earned money as a bribe. This left me with few options. New cars were out of the question. Those who had not gone to war had long before been placed on priority lists for new cars when the manufacturers resumed making them. For shame on the major automobile makers, there was no preference given to doctors or returning war veterans. The automobile agencies we had dealt with before WW II had long since gone out of business. The situation was especially bad in New York City. In Philadelphia, through the intervention of my brother-in-law Leroy, who had returned to his position as vice president of a small bank and was doing business with a Buick agency, I was able to obtain a well-used Buick sedan for $1,200 without any bribes being passed. Ardean and I now had a means of transportation and we set out for New York. Here we found the housing situation in an unbelievable mess. Nothing was available for returning veterans no matter what they might be willing to pay. Finally, a good friend of ours, Miss Martha Swensson, came to our rescue by subletting a modest one-room studio in Greenwich Village on Carmine Street. Each morning, Ardean and I would scan the New York Times looking for an apartment to rent, to no avail. The doctors’- office situation was equally bad, except that the Columbia- Presbyterian Medical Center had built some new doctors’ offices in Harkness Pavilion expressly for returning veterans.
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- The Life of the ClinicianThe Autobiography of Michael Lepore, pp. 264 - 275Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2002