Just a “C”

By Nana Dadzie Ghansah

There are subjects you study in med school that are meant as instruments of torture. One of these is “Embryology” — the study of how the fetus forms from the fusion of the female egg and the male sperm and how all the organs develop and end up at their final spots. I bet you did not know that the heart started off as a tube!

With that intro, let’s go back in time to 1989…back to the University of Leipzig. It was one night in the winter, the night before an all-important embryology exam that would make up 30% of the total score in Anatomy. My study partner and I had been cramming for hours. I was still stuck on how the zygote went from one cell to 16!

Out of the blue, my study partner (SP) went:

SP: I wish I had a gun!

Me: Huh?

SP: I said I wish I had a gun.

Me: I thought I wasn’t hearing right. What for?

SP: I would break into Prof. Schmidt home, put the gun to his head and demand, “Give me a “C”! (Prof. Schmidt was the Embryology professor)

Me: Why a “C”? Why not an “A”?

SP: Do I look like an “A”?

Me: (laughing) NO!

SP: You see! Also, if I ask for a “B”, he might hesitate. In the interim, his wife could call the cops. By…