Dr. Ralph Cressman

Retired surgeon Ralph Cressman recalled a hunting trip he took with Dr. Al Snell and Dr. Blake Wilbur. Having breakfast one morning in their cabin, they heard a knock on the door. Outside they found a man seeking the doctors' help because he was unable to urinate. "So I said, ‘Well, I don't have a catheter.' And Blake, he says, ‘Well, I don't have a catheter.' And Al Snell says, ‘Well, I brought a bag and I've got a catheter.' So I laid the guy down on a bench and catheterized him.

As he got released he said, ‘Ah, it's worth $1,000.' But the guy never even gave me a quart of whiskey." Why Dr. Snell had bothered to bring a catheter on a hunting trip was never clear. "I think he just figured that this was something that you put in your medical bag in case you needed it," Dr. Cressman said.