“Heal Frequently, Cure Sometimes, Comfort Always”
Five Days at Memorial“Heal Frequently, Cure Sometimes, Comfort Always” is the medical-school motto that gives John Thiele a practical guide when he feels he has almost no control over the situation before him. Alongside the Golden Rule, it directs him toward the care he can still offer: comfort.
Meaning and Origin
Thiele had learned the motto in medical school. The book places it beside another influence on his conduct, the Golden Rule. A Catholic, Thiele had been shaped by the Jesuit priest Father Harry Tompson, who mentored him in how to live and treat people. In the crisis, these principles are not presented as abstract ideals: they help him determine what to do when his options seem sharply limited.
Comfort in a Crisis
The comfort Thiele contemplates is distinguished from the palliative care he had studied in a week-long course. That course certified him to teach symptom relief for patients who had chosen to make that goal of treatment their priority. The passage does not equate that structured practice with the care called for in the crisis. Instead, the motto’s final imperative—comfort—becomes Thiele’s remaining point of action when he believes he has lost almost every other form of control.
