A final service

I am an English trained GP who has been living and working in Holland for the past five years. My patient was 72 years old; a nice man with a caring wife by his side. I had seen him only twice before. The first time, a couple of months ago, he complained of tiredness. His ensuing blood test results were normal. He returned a few weeks later, this time with dizziness. His neurological examination was normal, so I referred him routinely to the local ear, nose, and throat clinic and gave him some cinnarizine for the weekend. His weekend didn't go well; the on-call GP thought he had probably had a transient ischaemic attack. I telephoned the local neurologist early on Monday morning, and, because …