[783] in Humor
HUMOR: One Leif to Live
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Andrew A. Bennett)
Thu Mar 23 09:55:49 1995
To: humor@MIT.EDU
Date: Thu, 23 Mar 1995 09:53:03 EST
From: "Andrew A. Bennett" <abennett@MIT.EDU>
I *think* I already sent this one around, but I'm not sure...
-Drew
Date: Wed, 22 Mar 1995 17:27:26 +0000 (GMT)
From: Espacionaute Spiff domine! <MATOSSIAN@aries.colorado.edu>
From: bostic@CS.Berkeley.EDU (Keith Bostic)
Forwarded-by: mwm@contessa.phone.net (Mike Meyer)
[Retyped without permission from World Press Review, April 1995]
A case of mistaken identity in Telemark, Norway was taken to absurd
heights recently. Geir Fragel Karlsen reports in Oslo's _Verdens Gang_
on the tale of two Leifs. One, 44 years old, was surprised at home one
day by ambulance medics who insisted that he was seriously ill and had
to be taken to a hospital 30 miles away. Although he felt fine, his
protests met def ears: ``Once they were sure I was who they thought I
was, it did not matter what I said.'' Even after he was found sound by
attending physicians, he was asked to return the next day.
The ambulance should have picked up a seriously ill 57-year-old Leif
with the same last name. The confusion stems not only from their
identical names; the men have the same family doctor, live in the same
apartment building, and had both visited a clinic for tests on the
same day. But only one patient's exams revealed a problem -- severely
low blood pressure and the likelyhood of blackouts.
The medics found the healthy Leif standing in the shower when they
arrived, a situation they recognized as incongruous. ``We had been
sent to pick up a patient so ill that he could not stand up,'' the
ambulance driver later told Karlsen. ``He looked so healthy.''
Luckily, the sick Leif was also advised to come to the hospital.
Arriving by car shortly after the 44-year-old, he was informed: ``You
have already been admitted.''
As if to invite further problems, the two Leifs ended up in the same
room. During morning rounds the following day, doctors got them
confused, asking the sound Leif about the afflictions of his suffering
namesake.
