By Emmanuel Fashakin
When you think that you have seen it all, this happens. That week in 2018, then 53-year-old Andrew (NRN) who has Diabetes Mellitus, Hypertension, and High Cholesterol came for his routine three-month check-up. Andrew is a very pleasant African American and a model patient — keeps all appointments, takes his medications, obeys all instructions, treats my staff well and he is always ever courteous. I examined him briefly, check his blood pressure again, and assured him that all is well. I ordered his blood tests, renewed his medications, and with a smile, I dismissed him. However, Andrew, with a smile, pulling out some sheets of paper from a folder, declared cheerfully: “Doc, I want you to verify my birth parents!”
My head was spinning as I took the papers from him thinking to myself: “ok, this 53-year-old bloke, born in 1964, when I was in Ebute-Ero playing beach soccer under the Carter Bridge in Lagos, wants me to verify his birth.” With the smile never leaving my face, I perused the papers. First the birth certificate. The brevity of information on that certificate was stunning, and it was issued in New York City! It had simply Date of Birth, Name of Child as “MALE SIMPSON” (not actual name written on document), and below that, Mother’s Maiden Name: MARY BROWN. That is all.
I scratched my head. The patient is registered with us as ANDREW SIMPSON. I reckoned that the birth certificate was issued prior to his naming, and that was the reason the birth certificate listed his name as MALE SIMPSON. The second paper Andrew gave me was an instruction sheet from the New York City Department of Health. The paper said that the patient’s birth date and parents needed to be verified, and listed the people who were allowed to do the verification. One of the approved verifiers is the patient’s own personal physician. I felt that the job should be fairly straightforward. Andrew enrolled in our practice in 2015, and all his insurance documents bore the name Andrew Simpson. Unfortunately, things were not as easy as I thought.
After studying the documents for a few minutes, I told Andrew cheerfully, “Andrew, this should be all right. I see that your dad is Mr. Simpson, your given first name is Andrew, and your mom’s maiden name was Mary Brown –” “No, no, no,” Andrew interrupted me, “my father is not Mr. Simpson, my father is Mr. Mark Tolliver.” “What?”, I asked Andrew “there is no Tolliver anywhere on this document!”. “Yeah, Mr. Tolliver is my dad all right, my mother told me that she was pregnant for Mr. Mark Tolliver while married to Mr. Simpson.” “What’s Mr. Simpson’s first name?” “I don’t know”, came the reply. “So you are bearing Mr. Simpson’s last name and you don’t know his first name?” “No, I don’t know his first name. I never knew the man. I lived with my mom.” “Did you know Mr. Mark Tolliver?” “No, I never knew him either, but my mom told me that was my father.” Now I knew that we have a real mess on our hands. And then an idea crossed my mind: “I think your mom is the one who can sort out this mess for you.” “No”, he replied in his sweet gentle voice, “my mother died in March this year!” I have a feeling that Andrew was asked to verify his identity when he tried to probate his mother’s estate.
I suddenly realized that I was Andrew’s last hope. The other would-be verifiers are probably all dead: the priest in his church at birth, his elementary school teacher, his uncle or aunt, etc. So I wrote Andrew a letter on the practice letterhead, reciting that Andrew had been our patient since March 12, 2015, that I last saw him in person that very day, that he was born to Ms. Mary Brown Simpson, but his real father was Mark Tolliver, on the stated date in 1964. I handed Andrew the letter. Andrew was extremely grateful, and I was grateful to God that my ordeal was over. I was almost 45 minutes behind schedule and my waiting room was filled up.
It was later at the end of the day when the last patient had left the office that I studied the instructions given in the document from the Department of Health carefully. There was a footnote that the verifying Doctor must have treated the patient within the first seven years of the patient’s life, or must have known the patient for at least 10 years. I was qualified under neither category, but I think that the Lord blinded my eye from seeing that caveat. I was Andrew’s only hope. His Doctor when he was a child would probably be dead or wouldn’t remember a thing, his mom is dead, he has no surviving uncle or aunt or other close relatives, and when I asked Andrew two days later regarding any Doctor he had seen over a 10 year period, he could not recall any. Andrew is rather slow mentally; he told me that he was attending some clinic prior to enrolling in Abbydek, but he couldn’t recall the Doctor’s name, and he had no phone numbers.
Andrew was in a bad fix and it is my hope that the Department of Health will allow him to establish his identity, 53 years after the fact, based on the non-conforming letter I gave him.
Emmanuel O. Fashakin, M.D., FMCS(Nig), FWACS, FRCS(Ed), FAAFP, Esq.
Attorney at Law & Medical Director,
Abbydek Family Medical Practice, P.C.
Web address: http://www.abbydek.com
Cell phone: +1-347-217-6175
“Primum non nocere”
