Nation: The Patient on Floor 17

How sick is the Shah? Ever since the deposed monarch suddenly arrived in the U.S. on Oct. 22 and was whisked to a Manhattan hospital, questions have been raised as to whether the trip was really necessary. Last week doubts erupted into a debate that occupied the attention of the physicians inside New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center as well as student picketers on the street outside. The Tehran government and anti-Shah activists in the U.S. charged that the Shah had used his illness as a political ploy to seek permanent sanctuary here. In the hospital, some staffers suggested sotto voce that...

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