Medicine: Ordeal & Triumph

Into the sun parlor of Atlanta's Emory University Hospital hobbled a solidly built man, taking some of the weight off his artificial left foot with a cane. Doctors, nurses and other well-wishers burst into applause as he completed the ten-yard walk from his room. Charles C. Kilpatrick, 42, warned with a grin: "Not too loud or you'll knock me over." Unaided, he eased himself into a chair, propped his feet on another. Charlie Kilpatrick was going home to his wife and teenage son, after three years and four months in the hospital and...

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