I first met Baby Boy Hoff about eight years ago.
But meeting is not really the right word for our first encounter.
I couldn’t find him in the computer, my secretary had said as she handed me the consultation request slip. In the corner that usually bore an imprint of the patient’s name and room number, I saw Baby Boy Hoff handwritten in large, clear letters. He must be over in the newborn intensive care unit, she added. Probably born just a couple of hours ago and no time to make up an id card yet.
I walked over to the newborn intensive care unit and asked Margo Dobbins, the charge nurse, where to find Baby Boy Hoff. As an otolaryngologist, a specialist in disorders of the ear, nose, and throat, I often visited Margo’s unit to examine newborns.
No one here with that name, Norm, she replied. Let me look it up in the computer. . . . The only ‘Hoff’ it shows is Eleanor Hoff up in ob, admitted yesterday.
