"That video," pointing at the circular tin which the patient gave him, "reveals a 90% blockage in the main artery to the heart."
"What are your thoughts on this?" inquired the cardiologist as if the patient was the expert and he a dumb medical man in search of explanations.
The maestro didn't expect the patient, a humble tour guide, to tell him what to do.
The result of the specialist's oblique question was a softening of the blow of facing the brutal reality of the urgent need to be catheterized to open the blockage.
In the catheterization room, the assistants exchanged knowing glances and chuckled. Professor Hasin employed his classic move to soothe anxious patients and staff. He declared, "Now, here's a model patient if I've ever seen one!"
With this announcement the clever cardiologist played the role of a movie director casting the patient as a medical soap opera star.
The patient, beaming with pride as if he'd just won an Oscar, relaxed and braced himself for a dramatic performance. Allowing the great doctor to work his magic without any stage fright getting in the way.
The cardiologist wielded the catheter like a sword, creeping through the maze of arteries like a hunter stalking his prey.
"Ah!" the patient heard the cry. The sword struck the blockage. The patient let out a groan like the death throes of a hunted animal as the point of the medical instrument bore into the thick mass of fatty tissue.
After the procedure, nurses in their stylish green uniforms lined up to watch the patient, with lifeblood once again carrying oxygen to his brain, being wheeled out as if they were about to start dancing the can-can.
A ward bathed in sunshine pouring through the picture window facing the beautiful pine trees took the place of the dismal torture chamber catheterization room.
The renowned master of the catheter appeared with hands in white coat pockets.
The scrutinizing virtuoso looked down on the hero, whose calm cooperation made the opening successful. This added to Dr. Hasin's fame as an expert in finding and opening artery blockages, a veritable plumber of human pipes.
A frown and a sharp tongue replaced the catheter manipulator's jovial words. The sentence was severe, as if handed down from the judge on high: "No more smoking, no whiskey, and one and a half hours of brisk non—stop walking each day."
The patient's wife ensured her husband carried out the sentence to the last jot and tittle.
Three months later, as fate would have it, he found himself back in the catheterization room. Life had dealt him a bad hand in a never-ending poker game.
"I followed instructions. Why did the blockage return?" Again shrugging shoulders, the cardiologist pointed out, "Nothing in life is guaranteed, not even your arteries. Exercise can minimize the chances of another heart attack, but there are no guarantees! Life's a gamble,"
Most people think that wise people have all the answers. That's why we call them wise. Prof. Hasin demonstrated the mistake in this logic. Not all questions have answers. In fact, the wiser the person who is asked, the less clear-cut the answer we receive. Human beings do things not for a reward, as the rabbis say in the Ethics of the Fathers, but because the master orders us to do them.
The master is our body. Our bodies order us to exercise and eat healthy food.
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