Acute Myelogenous Leukemia

Abstract

For almost 45 years, I’ve had two alcoholic drinks before dinner. In November 1985 there was a sudden change. I lost my taste for alcohol. At about the same time, the Southern California winter evenings seemed to me much colder. Neither the weatherman nor my wife agreed.

Dr. Jack Lewis at the time of his illness was a 65-year-old specialist in internal medicine at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, and associate clinical professor of medicine at the University of Southern California. He was also a captain USNR-R. He received his A.B. in 1942 and his M.D. in 1946 from Stanford University and did his postgraduate work and residencies at Yale University (1947) and the University of Chicago (1948–1952). He was chief of medicine and director of research at the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission at Hiroshima, 1953–1955. As this book went to print Dr. Jack Lewis began to suffer the final relapse of his disease. He remained at home, intellectually alert and spiritually courageous, until lapsing into coma two days before his death. Dr. Lewis died on the morning of June 15, 1987, in Los Angeles.