“De Doctuh Done Reach"
p. 93 · Read in the full issue
“Out-Island Doctor” is one of the most entertaining books to come out of the West Indies and certainly the most unusual. The doctor in the case is Evans W. Cottman, “not a real MD”, who is assisted by Wyatt Blassinggame in writing this autobiography. In the practice of medicine, however, Evans was on his own.
UNTIL middle-life he was a science teacher at the high school, Madison, Indiana, and usually vaca tioned in the British Bahamas. But gradually the call of the islands got greater and that of the school less, and finally he retired to the Islands and took up the practise of medicine, lust like that.
As qualified medical men in the outer Bahamas are practically non existent, the government grants a limited licence to persons having certain scientific qualifications. These are known as Unqualified Medical Practitioners, and engage in general practice except major surgery. The nearest parallel in the South Pacific would be if the P-NG Administra tion licensed European Medical Assis tants to go into private practice.
No Ordinary Business It was soon evident to Cottman that medical practice in the outer Bahamas was going to be no ordinary business. Not only had he to master the new medical jargon of the text books he had brought, but he had to learn the strange language of the local people. In time he got used to both; to being announced, when he reached some out of the way cay, that had had no medical attention for years, by someone marching through the village shouting, “De Doctuh Done Reach!”
Or being asked by every patient: “Doctuh, ain’t you gonna sound me to see if my blood is running right?”
From ingrowing toenails to a hang over, you just weren’t a doctor in the Bahamas if you didn’t use your stethoscope right off, as a sounding rod.
To help him get about, De Doctuh built a ketch called the Green Cross and the adventures he had in hei were equally as extraordinary as those he had with his patients.
There is laughter in every page of this book, and occasionally pathos. Above all, it proves that a man in a rut can, if he wishes, change course even in middle-life.—lT. (OUT-ISLAND DOCTOR. Published by Redder & Stoughton Ltd. 26/6.)