Princess
Her bedroom was wall-to-wall pink frilly femininity, hundreds of stuffed animals keeping her company. It was suited to a real princess, which in a way she was. After my tour, we sat in the family room and watched videos of “J” winning competition after competition in figure skating. It was 1988 and she was 15, a pretty, brilliant only child, an 89-pound package of grace and skill who seemed sure to make the Olympics. (Think Sasha Cohen). Before that she had been a champion gymnast but “retired” when she discovered skating.
This is the story of “J”, my patient from birth, who became an angel. She never saw her 16th birthday, never skated for the USA, but became an inspiration to many who did.
A year earlier she developed a swollen knee. Her parents by-passed me and went to a high-profile sports medicine doctor who after a cursory exam referred her to a rheumatologist for “arthritis”. After two months of progressive swelling, vomiting and weight loss, she went back to famous Dr. X who tried to send her on her way with “Just keep taking the medicine Dr. Y prescribed.” “J”, not awestruck by the doctor, asked “Aren’t you going to examine me?” He patted her sore knee and left.
Four months after the trouble began I finally found out (yes, I’m still angry) what had transpired. I ordered a CT scan and the results were devastating. Bone cancer in the knee had already spread throughout her lungs.
She braved every therapy USC and UCLA’s top specialists could throw at her in a gallant attempt to save her life. She refused amputation, and rightly so. For thirteen months she did her best with the rotten hand she’d been dealt. The orthopedic doctor’s lack of diligence alone probably hadn’t cost her her life because her disease is usually fatal, but how could he live with himself?
When my last visit to her home occurred she weighed 65 pounds and looked halfway to heaven, but her indomitable spirit was intact.
Her picture reminds me every day to listen, to examine, to be a doctor my patients can trust. She is frozen in time as a teenager with every gift a girl could ask for, except life itself.