The 79-year-old patient
At the other end of life, a 79-year-old man arrives with appendicitis. Years later he seeks him out in São Paulo.
“I received an elderly patient, 79, with appendicitis.”
Pedro Moretti Guedes · Reminiscências de um Médico
If the youngest patient was under three, the oldest he operated on for appendicitis was 79. Pedro isolated the appendix, operated and left a drain, as technique requires when there is a risk of contamination.
The gentleman recovered. Some time later, already in São Paulo, Pedro met him again: the patient came looking for him. In the accounts, the reunion matters more than the operation. An emergency-room episode became the personal memory of someone who wanted to keep the bond.
This text is an editorial adaptation of an account preserved in the family compilation "Reminiscências de um Médico" (2008). It is autobiographical memory, not a medical record or medical advice.