Another Doctor
View of Fort Hamilton; the red circle highlights the building
to which we walked to meet the "Other Doctor"
wnyc.org/story/verrazano-narrows-bridge-most-princely/
We entered a small building and climbed up to the second floor. Without knocking, he opened a door, and led me into a room where another doctor was examining a patient. Neither of them seemed surprised by the rude intrusion.
"Take a look at this. What is it?" The new doctor looked me over, coldly, critically, top-to-bottom, as if he were deciding whether or not to buy a new suit. Then he focused on the red spot, thinking. When he offered his diagnosis, it sounded almost exactly like the one written in the letter I had brought along.
"You're certain?"
"Yes."
Now the first doctor frowned even harder. He looked at me, and said, "This Dr. Orfuss, the guy who wrote your letter... he isn't a dermatologist is he? I mean, he's just a GP, right?" Before I could answer, the new doctor jumped in.
"Orfuss? Is that ABRAHAM J. ORFUSS? The one who's done the work at Bellevue?"
"I guess so."
"He's world famous! I've never met any of his patients before." Excited, the new doctor extended his arm and shook my hand; I was a dermatological celebrity. The first doctor groaned, slouched, and almost dropped the clipboard. He glared at me.
Abraham J. Orfuss,(from the 1937 Yearbook of the Long Island College of Medicine)
Diplomate of the American Board of Dermatology,
member of the American Academy of Dermatology and Syphilology;
President of the Manhattan Dermatological Society,
member of various other regional Dermatological Societies;
Professor of Clinical Dermatology at NYU School of Medicine;
Dermatologist at University Hospital, Goldwater Memorial,
and Bellevue Hospital, and evidently a very good man to have in your corner
We went back outside, and headed towards the painted stripe. Once again, neither of us said anything about anything, but I was laughing very hard inside. Back at the stripe, he took a broad red marker and wrote a few big cryptic letters across the cover page of my clipboard. I had been disqualified at the starting line - but I still had to go through the motions of running the race.
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