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Corresponding Address: Todd A. Guth, md, Department of Emergency Medicine, Anschutz Medical Campus, University of Colorado School of Medicine, 12401 East 17th Ave. Campus, Box B-215, Leprino Bldg, 7th Floor, Aurora, CO 80045
Affiliations
Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, Colorado
As I make the trek from the parking garage to the Emergency Department, I pass through
several long hallways lined with paintings capturing the essence and spirit of the
American West. I work at the University of Colorado Emergency Department, where I
can easily see the peaks of the Rocky Mountains from the ambulance entrance, so images
of the American West do not seem out of place. If I am not rushing to make sign-out
rounds, I may pause to appreciate the paintings that line the walls of the hospital.
My favorite painting, The Trapper's Last Shot, by William Tylee Ranney (Figure 1), is precisely across from the back entrance to the Emergency Department. I get to
see it every day just before I go to work.
Figure 1The Trapper's Last Shot by William Tylee Ranney, published courtesy of the American Museum of Western Art —
The Anschutz Collection, Denver, Colorado.
The photograph of the painting was taken by William J. O'Connor.
I have been reviewing manuscripts for various publications for over 30 years. Occasionally I read a submission that stimulates me enough to request of the editor an opportunity to respond, to register my own thoughts on the subjects of the essay I have just reviewed. After reading “Commiseration with a Frontier Trapper: A Reflection by a First-Year Emergency Medicine Physician,” I realized that I had read just such a manuscript, for Dr. Guth had made me ponder, not only this entrancing image, but what it “means,” which I write in quotation marks because I came to realize that it meant something different to me than it did to Guth (1).
