Throughout his life, Dr. Botkin only made one incorrect diagnosis. He was a brilliant clinician—far beyond any fictional doctor like House, and Serguei Petrovich was a very real Russian physician. For instance, Botkin once advised a patient, who couldn’t shake a persistent cold, to change his daily route. The patient walked through the Spasskaya Tower of the Kremlin every day, but Botkin suggested he pass through the Troitskaya Tower instead. Miraculously, the illness vanished. Fantasy? No. The issue was that at the icon of the Mandylion, hanging above the Spassky Gate, people were required to remove their hats, even in freezing weather, which caused the illness. How did Serguei Petrovich figure this out? The answer is simple – he was a genius and loved people deeply. Serguei Petrovich Botkin was born on September 17, 1832, and until the age of 9, his family thought he was somewhat slow—he couldn’t read and struggled with letters. It was later discovered that he had severe astigmatism, and poor vision, not a lack of intelligence, hindered his learning. Astigmatism also prevented him from becoming a surgeon, so he specialized in therapy. Thanks to Botkin, the precursor to the ambulance— a sanitary carriage—was created. He strictly followed Christian principles: through his initiative, medical complexes for the poorest were established in the capital and other cities. These complexes included outpatient clinics and hospitals where treatment was free. For Botkin, no patient was more or less important than another. In the last year of his life, he was researching the problem of aging, though he did not live to see old age—Serguei Petrovich passed away at only 57. Relentless work took its toll on him. He developed heart disease, and it was then that Botkin made his only wrong diagnosis—of himself: he stubbornly believed he was suffering from liver colic. In 1889, as the newspapers wrote, “death took from this world its most uncompromising enemy”…