We had almost 400 lectures over the last two years and I can still remember Dr. Hartigan's lecture on the upper extremity and the brachial plexus first year. I learned then what a trigger finger was and actually knew what was going on when my mom had one later. I skipped an apamsa event that year to attend one of his evening lectures and I just remember sitting there, eyes glazed over, mouth open, listening to him describe how he used the skin of the ring finger and flipped it over onto the pinky to supply blood to the pinky finger in one procedure and how he managed to straighten out another finger curled up and damaged by a botched surgery. Dr. Hartigan was young, handsome, charming, kind and a brilliant orthopedic-hand surgeon. He was president of his practice, loved by his residents, married with 3 kids and today, I read his obituary in the Chicago tribune. He died from adrenal cancer last week.

And now it's 11:41 at night and I can't fall asleep because I feel sad that someone who I've never actually spoken to or worked with and have seen only twice in my life has passed away.