Standby MD asked me to see a guest at
the Doubletree – in Santa Ana. That’s fifty miles away, but it was Sunday
morning; freeway traffic was light, a perfect time to go to Orange County.
The guest was an elderly Canadian man
suffering diarrhea and vomiting. He mentioned that half a dozen members of his
tour were affected; several had gone to the emergency room.
That brought back memories of a guest
in 1991 with the same symptoms. Stomach viruses are the second most common
ailments a hotel doctor encounters. They’re miserable but short-lived; I had
delivered the usual advice and remedies, but when I called to check the next
day, I learned that he was in the hospital with cholera. I remembered that he
had flown in from Peru.
Cholera also causes diarrhea and
vomiting. It’s extremely rare in the US. In fact, if an American patient turns
up with any of the major historical diseases (cholera, malaria, rabies,
leprosy, typhoid, typhus, plague, even tuberculosis) it’s almost certain that
the American doctor will get it wrong on the first visit.
The Canadian gentleman was already
recovering, but my phone rang before I left with a request to see another tour
member. She was sick enough to send to an ER where she stayed until the
evening. There is little cholera in Canada, so this was a stomach virus.
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