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The doctors have changed

RELATED STORIES

Parathyroid crisis
Marek Edelman Social activist
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A boy, a boy - a grown man - was brought in and we didn't know what was wrong with him when suddenly all his renal indicators shot up and in a word, he was dying. There was one person there who'd remained on duty. She'd learned from a book so when he developed kidney failure, she said we needed to check his calcium levels. This would never have entered my head. She did this and the readings showed that his levels were three times higher than normal which meant that something wasn't right. We found the parathyroid gland tumour, put him in an ambulance and took him to Professor Tołłoczko in Warsaw. It was morning and his level had already reached 20 which is fatal but there was some medication that could bring this down a little, he gave him this, operated on him and the man lived for another 30 years. We had a few incidents like that, but when you're in medicine, you always get it wrong on some occasions while at other times, things go well.

Bo przyjechał taki chłopak, chłopak... dorosły mężczyzna, nie wiadomo było, co mu jest. I nagle wszystkie wskaźniki nerkowe idą do góry i jednym słowem on umiera. A mieliśmy taką... jej antagonistkę, więc ona została na dyżurze, a ona była z książki uczona, więc jak on ma niedomogę nerek, to mu trzeba zrobić wapń. Mnie by to nigdy do głowy nie przyszło. Zrobiła mu wapń i wyszedł wapń trzy razy wyższy niż normalnie, to znaczy, że coś się dzieje. Jednym słowem, wymacaliśmy guzek przytarczyczek, wsadziliśmy go w karetkę, zawieźliśmy do profesora Tołłoczki do Warszawy, to było rano, on już miał 20 poziom, to już jest śmiertelny, a był taki preparat, który trochę obniża, on mu dał to, zoperował go i człowiek żył potem jeszcze 30 lat. Mieliśmy parę takich numerów, co to były glanc fizyka. Ale jak się pracuje w medycynie, to się zawsze... trochę się kopie, a trochę jest dobrze.

Marek Edelman (1919-2009) was a Jewish-Polish political and social activist and a noted cardiologist. He was the last surviving leader of the 1943 uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto. Following the Second World War, he took an active part in domestic and international politics, dedicating himself to fighting for justice and peace.

Listeners: Anka Grupinska Joanna Szczesna Joanna Klara Agnieszka Zuchowska

Anka Grupinska ukonczyla filologie angielska na UAM w Poznaniu. Wspólpracowala z poznanskimi pismami podziemnymi, wraz z innymi zalozyla i wydawala dwumiesiecznik "Czas Kultury". W latach 1988-1989 przebywala w Izraelu opracowujac wspomnienia ocalalych z Zaglady. W latach 1991-1993 pracowala jako attaché kulturalny w ambasadzie polskiej w Tel Awiwie. Od 1996 mieszka w Polsce. Anka Grupinska specjalizuje sie w tematyce stosunków polsko-zydowskich. Publikuje ksiazki (m. in. Wydawnictwo Literackie, Zydowski Instytut Historyczny, Twój Styl), artykuly prasowe (m. in. "Tygodnik Powszechny", "Rzeczpospolita"), realizuje projekty wystawiennicze. Jest takze koordynatorem miedzynarodowego projektu "Swiadek zydowskiego wieku" (archiwizowanie pamieci o zydowskiej przedwojennej Polsce), prowazi autorska audycje radiowa "O Zydach i o Polakach tez" i uczy warszawskich studentów sztuki czytania i pisanie tekstów literackich.

Anka Grupinska studied English at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland. She wrote for Poznan’s underground publications and was herself one of the founding publishers of the bi-monthly Czas Kultury. She spent 1988 and 1989 in Israel compiling reminiscences of Holocaust survivors. From 1991 to 1993, she held the post of Cultural Attache at the Polish Embassy in Tel Aviv. She moved back to Poland in 1996 and now writes books on Jewish subjects, mainly dealing with the history of the Warsaw ghetto. She is also a freelance journalist for Tygodnik Powszechny. Anka Grupinska is the director of the Centropa Foundation project in Poland (oral history project) called “The Witness of the Jewish Century¿, presents her own radio programme, “Of Jews and of Poles too¿, and teaches creative writing and oral history in Collegium Civitas and SWPS in Warsaw.

Joanna Szczesna is a journalist writing for Gazeta Wyborcza. Together with Anna Bikont, she’s the author of Pamiatkowe rupiecie, przyjaciele i sny Wislawy Szymborskiej (The Recollected Flotsam, Friends and Dreams of Wislawa Szymborska) a biography of Wislawa Szymborska, the Polish winner of the Noble Prize for Literature. Since the 1970s, Joanna Szczesna has been involved with the democratic opposition movement in Poland, active in the Worker’s Defence Committee (KOR), the co-founder of the independent press in Poland: editor of KOR’s Information Bulletin, Solidarnosc Press Agency and Tygodnik Mazowsze.

Joanna Szczesna, dziennikarka "Gazety Wyborczej", autorka - wraz z Anna Bikont - biografia polskiej noblistki "Pamiatkowe rupiecie, przyjaciele i sny Wislawy Szymborskiej". Od lat 70-tych zwiazana z opozycja demokratycznaw Polsce, wspólpracowniczka Komitetu Obrony Robotników, wspóltwórczyni prasy niezaleznej w Polsce: redaktorka "Biuletynu Informacyjnego KOR-u", Agencji Prasowej "Solidarnosc" i "Tygodnika Mazowsze".

Joanna Klara Agnieszka 'Aga' Zuchowska was born 20 January 1938. Her father was killed in the Katyń massacre. After the war, she moved from Warsaw to Lódz. She obtained a degree in medicine in 1960, qualifying as a specialist in internal medicine in 1973. Dr Zuchowska worked with Marek Edelman for 15 years. In 1982 she left Poland for Algeria where she remained for the next three years, returning to Poland in 1985. She currently lives in Lódz.

Joanna Klara Agnieszka 'Aga' Zuchowska, urodzona 20 stycznia 1938. Ojciec zginal w Katyniu. Po wojnie zamieszkala w Lodzi. Studia ukonczyla w 1960 r. a specjalizacje z chorób wewnetrznych w 1973 r. Doktorat obronila we Wroclawiu. Pracowala z Markiem Edelmanen przez 15 lat. W 1982 r. wyjechala do Algerii. Wrócila do Polski w 1985 r. i mieszka obecnie w Lodzi.

Tags: Warsaw, Tadeusz Tołłoczko

Duration: 1 minute, 18 seconds

Date story recorded: December 2003

Date story went live: 24 January 2008