The jury concurred by me 01.07.2008

"Seventy five percent!" proclaimed Mary. Her neurology professor confirmed the verdict, "Correct, 75 percent of patients with optic neuritis develop multiple sclerosis later.

"I bent my head down, added another note to today's lecture. My eyes closed, "Say it is not so, Mary! If only you knew the weight of your words."

I had been suffering from a so called "loss of vision" for the past two weeks. The family physician referred me to the emergency room to eliminate a papilledema and increased cranial pressure.

"The classical referral to the emergency room is by family physicians, to rule out increased cranial pressure," my neurology professor explained. He is slowly building the evidence for my case, as the medical students take notes. Node their heads.

The physician at the emergency room saw no papilledema and reassured the family physician. " I don't see anything in your eye," he reassured me. "But, I still cannot see in my left eye clearly," I repeated as he sent me away.

The neurology professor now put up some slides of a fundoscopy, "In multiple scleorosis, the patients cannot see, and we, the physicians, cannot see anything in their eyes."

The lecture about multiple sclerosis was over. "Somatization disorders," read the next lecturer on one of his slides. "Most of medical students diagnose themselves around the time of your study!" he said, joking.

Yet, every doctor that I had seen to check my eye relaxed after I told them that I was a medical student. Somehow, no harm was going to happen to me, I was invincible to disease because I was part of the medical personnel. How long will my diplomatic immunity hold? Was I really I sick? Was I imagining my sickness- somtization, as this new lecturer mentioned just now!

Still, I went to another clinic. Maybe another doctor would be able to explain why I could not see in my left eye. At that clinic, there were other medical students, like me. The diplomatic immunity against disease, and vulnerability was shattered in the presence of my own peers. The doctor examined my eye. I had become the "sick" one, to the other medical students, the accused and now, the "guilty".

The medical students nodded as the doctor who examined my eye explained about the differential diagnoses. They took notes. And, I waited for my verdict as the jury of medical students and doctor concurred.