User Reviews

My oldest sister Elaine was watching Ben Casey re-runs after school. It was the first time I was introduced to a medical drama at the tender age of 7. This episode captured my attention from the get go. Allie Burns (Sammy Davis Jr.) is a Black ball player seriously injured due to getting hit in the eye with a major league fastball. Allie is rushed to County General. The resident ophthalmologist Dr. Felix Martin (Greg Morris)also a man of color doesn't hesitate and fails miserably in the use of Good bedside manner as a concerned ballplayer asked how his injured eye is. The direct Dr. Martin bluntly says," We're removing that eye immediately." Our ball player pleads for him not to proceed. As a 7 year old, I ran out of the living room and cried to my Mom there taking out Sammy's Eyeball. My sister got an earful as my mother and Mom and I returned to the living room as we watched the outcome of the episode together. Sammy's performance was indeed captivating as the three of us were focused on the one-eyed ballplayer and his adjustments to society. I was then hooked on watching medical based dramas. Before the next scene begins there lies our ballplayer minus an eye with a patch covering the socket. Dr. Martin tells Allie that he came up the hard way and is a self educated man of color and Allie being an athlete sold himself short with a lack of education. Allie panics and leaves the Hospital for a time to get a hold on his new situation. Trying to adjust with one blinker working trying to get use to depth perception. Sammy returns to the Hospital and gives his take on the human race to Dr. Martin with a heartfelt lecture on love and kindness. The episode starts abruptly and shocks your senses, but toward the end Sammy mellows the setting. Any other parent would have turned off the television set, but my Mother saw value in that story and I'm glad she made the right choice. Ironically, years later I would have 6 surgery's in each eye due to a cornea transplant.