Tonsillitis: Quotes

• George Mallory was asked why he was so fond of climbing the Everest. His ironic reply: Because it is there! Since then, the phrase 'Everest complex' simplifies the 'Because it is there!' syndrome. Most tonsils get removed because

  A The child is there with the tonsils not yet removed,

  B The anxious parents are there who are somehow convinced that the tonsils must be removed, and

  C The ENT surgeon knows that easily the tonsils can be removed.

• The standing ENT joke in America is that anyone who grows up without losing the tonsils must have had parents practicing ENT speciality.
• Today, tonsillectomy is probably the most obvious example of an operation performed on a large scale for decades, yet now considered to be seldom, if ever, of value.
  Walsh McDermott, Professor of Public Health, Cornell, USA.
• Tonsillectomy is done for everything but tonsillitis (no nose and throat man will touch tonsil if it is inflamed. (Edgar Berman, US surgeon)
• Never in the history of medicine have so many physicians owed so much economic security to a single operation as tonsillectomy. (Lyman Richards, Quoted in The New York Times, 1953)
• Tonsil is just one of the many tissues that react. How is it that it is the only one sacrificed?
• The positive role of tonsils in helping the owner for a lifetime cannot be ruled out.
• Speech is the miracle brought about by the various oro-pharyngeal tissues modulating the laryngeal jet of air. The contributory role of tonsil to good voice and to good singing cannot be ruled out.
• Make it a general rule: If you have the slightest doubt about doing the operation then please DON'T.
• According to Dr. P.M. Udani, eminent pediatrician, the operation is beneficial when done for specific indications, namely, repeated attacks of tonsillitis and evidence of chronic infection or focus of infection.

Courtesy: Dr.Manu Kothari, MS, a leading medical thinker and a surgeon from KEM Hospital,India, who was kind enough to send a collection of Tonsil quotes specially for this web site. We thankfully acknowledge