The evidence and Audrey

This is a tale of two extraordinary people, one a professor of evidence based medicine, the other a retired schoolteacher with advanced ovarian cancer. I was a house officer to the famous professor when Audrey, the teacher, was an inpatient under our care.

One night, although not on call, I was still tidying things up on the wards when I heard someone call my name. Looking up I saw Audrey beckoning me. She had been suffering from pneumonia arising from a metastasis of the lung, and I assumed she was asking me for some assistance. As I approached, however, she told me breathlessly that I worked too hard, I wasn't being paid for it, and that I should go home. She was that sort of person.

Audrey recovered from her pneumonia …