He Had an Iron Tattoo

It’s just one true tale that inspired two physicians to write a book about lessons learned from patients

Life lessons

Neurologists and authors Lawrence Levitt, M.D. (left), and John Castaldo, M.D., share the lessons patients taught them in their newly released book, The Man with the Iron Tattoo.

When he met Jim Reilly*, neurologist John Castaldo, M.D., was intrigued. Reilly claimed he was a former Navy SEAL and told stories of secret military adventures. Castaldo listened—with some doubt—while assessing his head injury.

Reilly followed all the doctor’s orders—until he needed an MRI. “I’ll burn up because of my Persian tattoos,” he told the technician, who relayed that message to Castaldo by phone. Castaldo thought this might be just another “story,” but his gut told him to do a quick literature search. He found an obscure reference titled: “Iron-ore Persian tattoos and risk of third-degree burns by MRI.”

Castaldo rushed to the MRI unit. Fortunately, the technician stopped the test in time, and Reilly was unharmed. But Castaldo’s watch wasn’t so lucky. When Castaldo reached into the machine to feel the man’s chest, the remnants of the magnetic force froze his watch’s
hands at 12:22 p.m. Castaldo keeps the watch today as a reminder: Always listen to what your patients are saying.

It’s one of 13 lessons Castaldo and fellow neurologist Lawrence Levitt, M.D., share in their newly released book, The Man With the Iron Tattoo and Other True Tales of Uncommon Wisdom.

For 20 years, the doctors exchanged medical learnings, while using the same office and brown oak desk. “We shared our successes, failures and lots of advice,” Castaldo says.

They also kept logbooks of lessons learned from their patients—the genesis for the book. “Initially, they were medical lessons. But over the years, they became more philosophical, such as how to be a better person,” says Levitt, who was recruited as LVHHN’s first neurologist in the 1970s by LVH–Cedar Crest founder Leonard Parker Pool.

Levitt met Pool while caring for his wife, Dorothy Rider Pool, when he was a first-year resident at a New York hospital. He believed the out-of -town man was a laborer who couldn’t afford a hotel room and invited him to dinner. The relationship forged between Levitt and Pool and the lesson he learned is shared in the story Encountering Leonard.

Other stories include A Vigil for Anna, where Levitt learns never to give up on a patient who suddenly falls ill, no matter how grave the situation may appear; Sitting With David, about Castaldo’s son, who was in a coma for 10 days after a tragic car accident; and Australian Blue Healer, where Castaldo treats a stroke patient based on a critical clue gleaned from the man’s dog.

“These stories show what our patients have taught us about love, faith and healing,” Levitt says. “It shares our fears, longings, sorrows and satisfactions of being doctors, and the ways we have been profoundly changed by the people we have treated.”

* The patient’s name was changed in the book to protect his identity.

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