Dr. Howard Kelly

I just received the post of this story on WeChat, and in a cautious and realistic attitude, I checked the foreign websites. There are clarification posts. If you are interested, you can look at the post forwarded below. The main idea is that the outline of this story is true, but it has been made up. The true story is:

Dr. Howard is already a doctor, not something that happened when he was a poor student. Then one day in spring, while he was walking, he stopped in front of a farmhouse and asked for a glass of water. A little girl opened the door and gave him a glass of milk. After a short stay, he left. Later, the little girl came to his hospital for emergency treatment and needed immediate surgery. He performed the operation himself, and the bill says that a glass of milk is enough to pay for your operation.

The true story is not so sensational, but it can also make people know gratitude. Thank you!

The generous gift of a glass of milk finally paid for the medical expenses-the truth!

ERumor concluded:

A boy from a poor family is a door-to-door salesman, and his money has run out. He was hungry and decided to ask for food from the next person who answered the door. However, he finally only asked for a glass of water, but the woman he wanted brought him a glass of milk. Many years later, the poor boy is now a famous physician named Dr. Howard Kelly, and the woman who gave him the glass of milk is very ill. He left himself in her care, and she recovered. When the bill was submitted, Dr. Kelly wrote, "Pay in full with a glass of milk."

The fact is:

Usually, someone makes up the details of this story and gets some wrong ones, but it is a true event in essence.

Dr. Howard Kelly is an outstanding physician. He established the Johns Hopkins Department of Gynecological Oncology at Johns Hopkins University on 1895. According to Dr. Kelly's biographer Audrey Davis, one spring, Dr. Kelly was hiking in northern Pennsylvania, and we stopped at a farmhouse to drink water. A little girl heard his knock at the door and brought him a glass of fresh milk instead of water. He called on her briefly and then left. After a while, the little girl came to him as a patient and needed surgery. After the operation, the bill was sent to her room, which read: "A glass of milk has been paid."

We thank andrew harrison, the archivist and art coordinator of Johns Hopkins Medical Institution, for helping this story.

Published on July 6, 2007