Winnie the Patient

Worried Britons learned last week that the indomitable Winston Churchill, who was 68 last November, had snorted, heaved and fought his way through a mild but dangerous attack of pneumonia. Said the Evening Standard: "The most crustacean of Mr. Churchill's critics will join in the rejoicing at the news. . . . The anxiety of the past few days has not received much public attention but it has been widely and deeply felt."

Said the News Chronicle: "The Prime Minister is hardly likely to be what doctors call a good patient." Britons envisaged "Winnie" wan but resplendent in the cream silk pajamas he loves. They imagined him resenting his confinement, glowering at the doctors, harassing the nurses, worrying over state affairs, demanding a Scotch & soda, trying to bribe attendants to bring him a cigar.

The physicians did not reveal any bedside secrets. Churchill's private physician, soothing, witty Sir Charles Wilson, visited his patient twice a day. When the Prime-Ministerial temperature rose, he called in Pulmonary Specialist Dr. Geoffrey Marshall and Haematologist Dr. Lionel Whitby, who knows sulpha drugs by their middle names.

According to Dr. Marshall's textbook on pneumonia, there are "relatively few recoveries" among those above the age of 60, "and indeed it kills so quickly and mercifully that it has been called the 'old man's friend.'" As usual, Winston Churchill scorned the ordinary, weathered the crisis and last week was pronounced out of danger. A bulletin on the state of his health added that the Prime Minister had been allowed to have his first cigar.

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