Snippets 3

St Patrick’s day was always a day for celebration with the entire Irish community not less among the medical profession and 1982 was no exception. Doctor O’Conner and his friends organised their usual party, a group of eighteen, mostly doctors and their wives, and at the last minute invited Dr Rosenthal who was single, feeling sorry for him as he was new to the area, knowing nobody and at a loose end that evening.
Grosvenor House was the venue for the evening and as usual was the scene of a magnificent banquet during which the harp was wheeled in to the accompaniment of the Eylan Pipes and a display of shamrock. Speeches followed and dancing continued until the small hours of the morning and of course a large quantity of alcohol was consumed without restraint as most people had organised drivers to take them home Doctor Rosenthal drank much more alcohol than he was used to, so much in fact that next day he felt very much under the weather and wasn’t feeling too good during his morning surgery. Around mid morning Dr O’Conner had occasion to go into Dr Rosenthal’s room to find a particular instrument and interrupted him examining a lady’s chest with his stethoscope, going carefully over both sides and taking great care, but Dr O’Connor noticed that he didn’t have the earpieces of the stethoscope in his ears.