we talked about that. He saw it as a bottomless pit of nothingness.
I hoped for reunion with those I loved but felt it was unprovable
and unlikely. He used to joke that he had a fair chance of seeing
the light and coming back to tell about it, and promised to let me
know all. His mother arrived finally, after many snow delays from
Boston. I had to translate for her to the staff, who did not un-
derstand either her accent or her manner, which was decidedly
Brahmin. When she finally left, she said to me, “I was a Lowell,
you know, and I appreciate that you speak English.” I felt the insult,
since I was most certainly not a Cabot. But I only nodded politely,
because her son was a dear.
The vets with lung cancer regarded it as a badge of battle, an-
other war wound, just delayed in onset. The Vietnam vets drank
and had shot up and had hepatitis. They had the cancers of the
young, lymphoma and leukemia and testicular cancer. They were
paraplegic and bitterly alcoholic and demanding. They were de-
pressed and slowly suicidal. They had relapsing TB from not tak-
ing their meds. They had TBI and got in wrecks and wasted away,
and were transferred to us from the surgeons to deal with their
bedsores and pneumonias. Hardly ever did anyone talk to me
about Vietnam. I was not in that club and never would be.
DOCTORS' LOUNGE
But they talked to each other. The best part of the VA was the
care the patients gave each other on the wards. I could count on
even the surliest 26-year-old to call the nurses if his buddy got a
fever or shook the bedrails. They knew when the old guy need-
ed his pain meds because he would moan and mutter. They knew
when the crazy guy started screaming that he was having flash-
backs. One man, called Boondoggie, had been a medic and now
had Hodgkin’s disease and had lost his spleen. He would get boils
and get admitted for antibiotics IV, and he was a star. He told me
that the jungle was the worst place on earth to fight and that he re-
membered all the ones he got to the helicopter. He asked me once,
“Do they teach you all anything about the VA?”
I said, “No, but what I learned is, if you want it done, do it your-
self.” That made him smile.
Dr. Barry practices internal medicine with Norton Community Medical Associates-Bar-
ret. She is a clinical associate professor at the University of Louisville School of
Medicine, Department of Medicine.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR AUTHOR Elizabeth Amin, MD
Re: The Robots Are Coming
Louisville Medicine, Vol.67 No. 4
September 2019
I
try to read Louisville Medicine the same
day that it arrives. September’s issue was
no exception. Often, I admit, I flip through
the magazine as I decide what I am going
to read first. This issue grabbed my atten-
tion starting with the President’s opening
remarks. I just kept going, enjoying the
content and presentation of each article until I had finished the last
paragraph of Aaron Burch’s “Dr. Who.” That is except for a single
paragraph in Dr. Barry’s editorial.
I just have to be blunt here and say categorically that in the
second paragraph, Dr. Barry seriously mischaracterizes the nature,
personality and behavior of HAL. I will agree to refer to HAL as HAL
9000, although this is only because I absolutely do not want him
to be confused with a Hybrid Assistive Limb. HAL was a sentient,
logical and capable being, entire and complete unto himself until
the conflicting instructions (ok LIES) of his HUMAN colleagues
lead to his psychotic breakdown. Yes, Dr. Barry, HAL did die (or
did he?) but not at the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was the
book written almost contemporaneously with the screenplay of the
movie by Sir Arthur C. Clarke. The actual germ of 2001 was a short
story that the author had written in 1948 entitled The Sentinel. In
1964 film director Stanley Kubrick met Sir Arthur in New York and
together they embarked on a project that became the first film in
the Odyssey series. The novel which we now know as 2001: A Space
Odyssey became the first of the Space Odyssey series.
2010: Odyssey Two was made into a movie in 1984. It is here
where we learn that under the painstaking care of his creator and
devoted psychiatrist, Dr. Chandra, HAL is restored to full cognitive
health. Not only that but ultimately, he is ready to sacrifice himself
to save the very human race that almost lead to his total demise.
There are two additional novels in the series. 2061: Odyssey Three
and 3001: The Final Odyssey. Neither one of these has been made
into a movie but in 2061 the fate of Dave Bowman and of HAL are
revealed.
So much has been written about the entire canon of Sir Arthur
Clarke’s science fiction, which goes way beyond the Odyssey series.
For those who are interested but don’t have time to read the indi-
vidual novels, there are multiple sources of information including
Wikipedia. (No, it isn’t fake. Cross referencing alone will ferret out
the truth.)
And what is in that name? Why is HAL who he is? IBM minus 1.
I-1 = H, B-1 = A, M-1=L IBM - HAL
Dr. Amin is a retired radiologist.
NOVEMBER 2019
37