Genre:

Short Fiction

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Medical Treatment, Disease, Death

    Describes a doctor giving advice to a woman about the best treatment of her sick young daughter. The condition of the girl worsens to the point where the doctor tells the woman, 'your own feelings probably tell you as much as all my science can' (183). Following the girl's death, the doctors who had been brought in to save her life argue over the treatment she should have received. One doctor concludes that although it was 'unprofessional' to say so, 'the child should not have died'; the mother exclaims to the practitioners 'Heaven help you' (184).