The Hotel Doctor

  “He’s over there! I think it’s an emergency!” Emerging from the elevator, I did not want to hear this. Despite the impression left...

At one point years ago, I had to discard half a dozen bottles of antibiotic eye drops when they reached their expiration date. I c...

  “Is he a VIP?” “All our citizens are VIPs” said the consul for Qatar, referring to a countryman at the Airport Hilton. Sick gu...

A guest at the Hyatt had fallen ill and cancelled a flight. He had recovered, but the airline insisted on a doctor’s note before allowin...

A travel insurer asked me to see a lady in Mission Hills complaining of high blood pressure. I drove off confident that this wasn’...

I stopped chopping an onion when the phone rang. A young man at the Airport Hilton was vomiting. For a hotel doctor, a difficult c...

Guests don’t say that. Mostly I hear: “Could I talk to my husband and call you back.…..?” Unlike the competition, I don’t confine ...

Loews guest was suffering flu symptoms, but mostly he worried about his temperature. I explained that the fever was not an ominous sign....

“I’ve been trying to pick up stuff, and I can’t,” said a Ramada guest over the phone. “You mean your arm is weak?” I asked. “N...

I was attending a guest at Le Mondrian when there was a knock. The guest was not dressed, so I opened the door to find myself eye-to-eye...

I spend less than $1,000 a year for supplies, so giving them out gratis is no sacrifice. Two or three times a year, I place an order a...

Hearing my fee, the guest announced that he was on Medicare. I explained that I am not a Medicare doctor, so he would have to pay me u...

Handing me a vial of an injectable medication, a guest explained that he needed a refill. Its label was in Spanish, but technical term...

She had a fourteen hour flight to Australia, explained a woman with a thick French accent. Unfortunately, she had thrown her back out ...

A young man at the Chateau Marmont had been coughing for two weeks. He had a fever, and my stethoscope revealed lung noises typical of...

At one a.m. in 1994, I received a call from Le Montrose, a boutique hotel in West Hollywood. The guest told me the problem was “person...

“Bom dia” said the woman who opened the door. “Bomn dia,” I responded. That’s the limit of my conversational Portuguese. My heart sa...

I once cared for a Fiji Airline flight attendant suffering stomach flu. These are miserable episodes of cramps, vomiting, and diarrhea...

Organizations like Amwell or Teladoc or Doctor on Demand pay doctors to answer phone calls. Sitting at home, we can earn $40 for a con...

“A guest would like to meet you at 4:15 in the lobby.” The caller was a concierge at the L.A. Hotel. “Is that all?” “I’m s...