Renewing a friendship
Imad (name changed) pushed open the door to my room and walked in with a broad smile on his face. I did not recognize him at first because he had grown into a young man of 15. The last I saw him was when he was a little boy, when his mother used to bring him for childhood asthma. Imad and his mother used to be frequent visitors to the clinic and so we had a friendly bond. I recognized Imad only after I saw his mother walking in quietly behind him. “Good morning doctor. How are you?” Imad beamed at me. By now, I was grinning back at him ear to ear, having recognized him and feeling so happy to see him again. I welcomed his mother and asked them both to have their seat. There was a bruise on Imad’s face just above his right eye and adjacent to the bruise was a swelling which looked quite painful. I saw it and asked, “What happened? Sports injury?” Imad laughed when I asked this, but his mother was quite upset and she said, “No doctor, he got into a fight with some hooligans ...