Doctor as patient. Part 1: When the unexpected happens

The folk philosophers will tell you the job that is put off is the one that takes longest to finish. The psychologists will verify the benefit of committing one's thoughts to paper as a way of exorcising the ghosts of the past. These two sentiments are by way of an explanation as to why this story needs to be written and why it has taken so long to get round to it. The years in between have allowed some of the ghosts to assume manageable proportions, that is to say they might now be managed as opposed to denied. This tale, while being an objective record of some of the events of late 1988, is also a record of some of the feelings attached to those events--a more difficult task.