Doctor, Patient Have Wildly Different Definitions Of Word 'Hope'

April 17, 2002 | Issue 38•14

WESTBROOK, ME— Terminally ill patient Wayne Lund and his physician have wildly differing definitions of the word "hope," it was revealed Monday. "Dr. [Robert] Petrakis said there's hope," said Lund, recently diagnosed with Wyckoff-Kleiner Disease, a rare degenerative brain condition that is 99.5 percent fatal. "If that's the case, I'm gonna beat this thing." Said Petrakis: "I told him, 'There's always hope... miracles do happen.' So, technically, I guess there's hope. But not really."