THE LIFE WE SEEK

The Life We Seek ~ 462 ~ husband and it had been decided that she could not be taken back into their home. Doubtless, arrangements could be made for her to go into an old people’s home. A few hours later, when I was called to the old lady’s side as the intern on her case, she was showing general physical deterioration. Inside of twenty-four hours she died—not of her broken hip but of a broken heart, although in desperation we had utilized all emergency medical measures that might conceivably restore her to health. Her broken hipbone had healed without a snag, but her broken heart had not. Despite all the favorable influences in vitamins, minerals and immobilization of the fracture that we had brought to bear upon her condition, she did not recover. To be sure, the bone ends had united and she had a strong hip, but she had not recovered. Why? The most important element needed in her recovery was not the vitamin, not the minerals, nor the splinting of