Who wants to go to the hospital?

Who wants to go to the hospital? As a patient? Here's the story of a surgery. A man in his 60s goes through the inevitable. He has a total of four bypasses on his heart. And that's how it all began...

M.* was just 14 when he was allowed to smoke a cigarette for the first time, or rather, had to. Because his friends only had one, and of course, you had to be there. It didn't take long before M. stole three cigarettes from his father's cigarette pack. And then, at some point, he spent his first pocket money on his first cigarettes. 

M. has actually always smoked since then—never much, as he claims today. But that's familiar. According to smokers, the Federal Ministry of Finance is only supposed to earn five billion euros annually instead of 22 billion. Yes, you read that right. The state earns billions from its citizens' tobacco addiction. Pretty clever—the state, not the smoker.

Back to M., and of course, he also had a grandfather who lived to a ripe old age and always had a cheroot in his mouth. Oh, and Helmut Schmidt** (the poor singer) still smokes, too.

And of course, he only smoked "red hand." It's a matter of honour. Always maintain style. "Oh, he smokes such a strong cigarette, he's a tough guy!" Of course, even stupid people are impressed by such things. Like the Marlboro Cowboy, he always seemed so cool. Until he died of lung cancer, I think at the age of 49. But that's not the point.

M. never had much money in his life, either. But at least enough to pay for his approximately 300,000 cigarettes (in other words, about three hundred thousand cigarettes). With interest, that would be about 100,000 Euros in today's money.

And now, after more than 43 years of smoking, M. is in the cardiac care unit of a hospital, and here at TerLima-news, you'll read how he's coping in the coming weeks.

M* Name withheld
** Helmut Schmidt was once the German Chancellor and today refuses to recognize the Smoking Protection Act