In February, 1966, a young surgeon from India, then a resident at a St. Louis Hospital, took a radical step in an attempted reconciliation with his estranged wife. She was a staff physician in Children’s Hospital in St. Louis, and was living in a dormitory there. The surgeon called a taxi driver to his apartment door and gave him a package which he asked him to deliver to his wife’s room.

His wife’s roommate answered the knock at the door and accepted the package. It was blood-soaked, and when she opened it, she found the surgeon’s right hand inside. A note delivered with the parcel read: "This is the hand that caused the trouble."

The police were called, and when they arrived at the surgeon’s apartment, they found him in a coma on the floor of the bathroom. On the kitchen table they fou…