ABSTRACT
One fine day in April I was leaving Bellevue, where I had been visiting Lisa, now Rafael-the-Kid's "woman" by virtue of her six months' pregnancy. Although mal-nutrition, in addition to a kidney infection, had landed her in the hospital, Lisa refused to eat both the hospital food and the nutritious delicias her mother brought her: corn soup, rice pudding, gandules, avocados, pears, apples, all items faithfully recorded by Ronna from Lisa's bedside. So taking a turn, and using my recently acquired Ph.D. title to call myself "doctor," I penetrated the inner chambers of Bellevue and traced the interns in charge of Lisa to a staff room where they were busy telling a hilarious story. Trying to speak with the voice of authority, I requested that Lisa be given fortified milk shakes. The interns quickly saw through my ruse and belittled my dietary credentials, but since theirs were also rudimentary, the conversation became fairly friendly when I explained Lisa's situation as that of an acculturating teenager. By the following day, she got not only her milk shakes but also a lot more attention. She started improving rapidly.
